A chilly half-marathon at a hot pace
Victory for Fred Mogoka in 1h01'14'' and for Ruth Kuthol in 1h11'13''
The esplanade of the Chateau de Vincennes was jam-packed this morning as 17,000 runners loosened up for the 12th Paris half-marathon. At 10am, Anne Hidalgo, Deputy Mayor of Paris and Joël Laine, race director, gave the signal to start and the runners set off for the 21.1 kilometre race through Paris.
Right from the start, the cold, wind and rain began to thin out the field as the specialists moved to the front. The race favourites, led by the Kenyan Fred Mogaka, immediately set a killer pace, covering the first ten kilometres in under 29 minutes and staying on schedule to break the course record. At the 12-kilometer mark, Benjamin Pseret caught Mogaka and tried to pick up the pace but Mogaka stuck with him. At this point, there were 5 runners in the leading pack: Nyabuti, Mogaka, Pseret, Barmasaï and Kasimili, with last year's winner, Rotich, trailing behind together with Sghyr and Koech.
After 17 kilometres, as the road to Saint-Hubert began to climb, Mogaka again tried to shake off the field but Nyabuti stayed on his heels while Pseret, Kasimili and Bamrasaï remained in contention. But the gap had widened in what was now a two-horse race.
1500 metres from the finish, Mogaka dug deep to pull away from Nyabuti and crossed the line in 1h01'14''. Nyabuti finished 7'' down on his Kenyan compatriot with a third Kenyan, Kasimili, coming in third at 1h01'48''.
The Frenchman Ismaïl Sghyr, the first non-Kenyan finisher, took 8th spot in 1h02'24''. The excellent performance of Barmasaï is also worth a mention since the Kenyan finished 6th in what was his first road race.
The women's event came down to four contenders although the pre-race favourite, Ruth Kuthol eventually won comfortably in 1h11'13'' ahead of Dulce Maria Rodriguez (1h11'36'') and Victoria Nenacheva (1h12'20''). The French runner, Zahia Dahmani put in a brave performance but just missed out on third place.
Ismaïl Sghyr: "Having beaten my personal best for this distance it goes without saying that I'm really delighted. It was a tough race. I think we passed the 10-k mark in under 29 minutes which is really going some. In any case, this performance bodes well for coming events".
Fred Mogaka: "It was a really tough race and only a few of us who could live with that kind of pace. Personally, I felt good which is why I attacked so early on. I'm really pleased. It looks like all that hard work in training has paid off."
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