This weekend saw a lot of great racing, with at least 10 runners below 2 hours and 7 minutes in races around the world. Six of them were in Paris alone!
Most impressive, of course, is Duncan Kibet and James Kwambai‘s 2:04:27 marathon in Rotterdam, where Kibet just edged Kwambai as both ran a time faster than everything other than the past 2 world records, both set by Haile Gebrselassie over the past year or so (2:04:26 and 2:03:59.)
The finish, with tens of thousands of spectators packed into the city’s Coolsingel center district, was a thriller for the final 500 metres. Kwambai who ran a strong and impressive race was the first to enter the broad central Rotterdam thoroughfare.
He was several metres ahead of his compatriot, the Kalenjin tribesman Kibet, who came back in the last few hundred metres, fell back only to come back again to finally edge Kwambai at the finishline to become Kenya’s new national record holder, surpassing former World record holder Paul Tergat. The distance between the two was nearly not visible.
I would have loved to have seen that race live; it must have been a real treat for the spectators at the finish line. You’ll also note in the photo above that Duncan Kibet is doing his best impression of Shiva (pictured left in a bronze statue from the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art.)
There were 4 people in Rotterdam under 2:07, a race which has produced 3 world records in less than 30 years.
(More Info: IAAF – Runner’s World – Photos: Rotterdam Marathon (Kibet) – Wikipedia (Shiva))
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