By John Bagratuni Aug 24, 2008, 4:51 GMT
Beijing - Samuel Wanjiru shook off his last rivals in the closing stages on Sunday to claim the first men's Olympic marathon gold for the proud running nation Kenya, at the Beijing Games.
Wanjiru, 21, used the final lap in the Bird's Nest stadium as a lap of honour as he waved to the large crowd en route to victory in a fast time of 2 hours 6 minutes 32 seconds.
Two-time world champion Jaouad Gharib of Morocco took the silver in 2:07:15 hours and Tsegay Kebede of Ethiopia grabbed bronze in 2:10.00.
Going into the race, the marathon was the only long distance event in which Kenyans had not yet won an Olympic gold medal.
'This is history for Kenya. I am glad to have this one,' said Wanjiru.
The youngster was no complete outsider as he had finished second at the London Marathon earlier this year and holds the half marathon world record.
Wanjiru spent six years in marathon-crazy Japan but has now returned to live and train in his homeland.
'I had to push the pace to tire the other runners and because my body gets tired when I slow down,' said Wanjiru. 'I tried to push with six kilometres left. It was hard but they couldn't keep up.'
The winning time was fast given the quickly rising temperatures on a sunny day in the 42.195-kilometres race from Tiananmen Square past several Beijing landmarks to the stadium.
The pace was high from the outset with Wanjiru and others breaking away before the 10km mark. Soon there were only five runners left up front, apart from the medallists Deriba Merga of Ethiopia and Martin Lel of Kenya.
The group was further reduced to three before Wanjiru made his final move. Merga tired dramatically in the end and was overtaken for bronze by Kebede in the stadium as he lost four minutes on Wanjiru in the final five kilometres.
Marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie did not compete, saying he was worried about Beijing's pollution. The Ethiopian ran the 10,000m instead and finished sixth there.
The race took its toll as world champion Luke Kibet of Kenya retired after 30km and the 2004 Olympic gold medallist Stefano Baldini of Italy had to settle for 12th place in his last big race.
'The start was OK because it wasn't so hot but during the race the weather was bad. In the last 10km it was unbelievable what the Kenyans and Africans were able to do in these conditions,' said Baldini.
Kibet said: 'I had a problem with my stomach. I started to feel it from 15km.'
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