New talents Kenneth Mungara and Winfred Kwamboka emerged tops at the 11th Standard Chartered Marathon in Nairobi.
Yesterday, Mungara and Kwamboka returned to the annual competition — which was staged on a new course — hopeful to improve on their previous performance at the StanChart showpiece and have their names entered into the millionaire club.
The two were a cut above their opponents as they oozed pure class, thrilling the thousands of fans among them several dignitaries that included Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi and Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, winning Sh1.5m prize each.
But the men’s and women’s 10km race and women’s 42km contests were marred by confusion, causing protests from the affected athletes.
It was particularly sweet for Mungaru, who has been struggling to earn Standard Chartered Marathon silverware both locally and abroad.
He has competed in the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (2010) after winning the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon in 2009.
Mungara, who comes from Limuru, formed the leading pack of 11 runners which had a sizeable number of new names among them Hosea Korir, Barnabas Kipyego and Joseph Biwott.
The 39-year-old but evergreen Mungara broke away from the 30-kilometre mark, producing a sudden burst of pace that separated the boys from the men to win in an impressive two hours, 11 minutes and 40 seconds – a fairly fast time for a high altitude marathon.
Korir (2:12.05), Kipyego (2:14.07) and Biwott (2:14.17) came in second, third and fourth as Sammy Kiptoo (2:14.21), Kiprono Yegon (2:14.23) and Isaac Arusei (2:14.33) followed.
Vincent Kiptoo (2:14.50), Lazarus Too (2:15.01) and Simion Tormoi (2:15.51) sealed the top ten spots.-standardmedia
