Logo

News24 Jun 2000


Kenyans run away with Gold Coast marathon races

FacebookTwitterEmail


AFP

25 June 2000 – Gold Coast, Australia - Kenyans Joseph Kahuga and Cosmas Ndeti who failed to make their Olympic squad outclassed a field of Australian, New Zealand and Japanese men to win the Gold Coast marathon and half-marathon here Sunday.

Kahuga covered the 42km marathon course along the coast's beaches and broadwater in a time recorded unofficially as two hours 16 minutes 38 seconds, well outside his best time of 2:07.59, to win the race.

Three-time Boston Marathon winner Ndeti won the half-marathon race in 1:03.30.

Official times were not available because of a power failure that caused a computer breakdown but Kahuga was more disappointed by the failure of any Australians to challenge him.

"No push," said Kahuga, explaining why his time was much slower than expected when he was hoping to win a place in the Kenyan Olympic training squad with a run under 2h10m.

"There is no difference here to the training area in Kenya, it is the same, so I wonder why ... there are no good marathon runners here," he said.

New Zealand's Phil Costley finished second in an unofficial time of 2:16.42 and Australian Magnus Michelsson was third in 2:17.34.

Ndeti, who also missed out on selection in the Kenyan Olympic team, said he wished he could compete for Australia because he would have made the team easily.

"In Kenya we have too many good runners," he said.

Local runner Samantha Hughes won the women's marathon in 2:42.16, while the women's half-marathon was won by Takako Kotorida of Japan.

Pages related to this article
Disciplines
Loading...