- Kenyan Philemon Limo's 27:34 course record highlighted the Metro 10Km in Prague on Saturday (10), an IAAF Silver Label Road Race.
In what was a very sad week for Czech sport, with the tragic death of three of its world championship ice hockey team players in an airplane crash earlier in the week, the last event of the Prague International Marathon (PIM) Running Circuit, the MATTONI Prague Grand Prix, had a poignant atmosphere as the runners lined up for the first competitive race, the adidas Women’s Race 5 km at 7.00 p.m.
As a mark of respect, a minute‘s silence was held before each of the races led by the Czech Republic’s golden boy, the champion footballer Pavel Nedved, but despite such a sad start, the event was a huge success, with, as is now becoming the norm for PIM’s races, yet another record smashed.
With Limo, the winner of the Hervis Prague Half Marathon earlier this year, lining up for the feature race, alongside several other runners with exceptionally fast personal bests for the 10k, the METRO 10k Race was guaranteed to be hot right from the gun, and so it proved.
Limo was quickly into the lead alongside three other athletes, with two other groups of four hard on their heels, but by the three kilometer mark Limo, together with Henry Chirchir and Adugna Tekele, had broken away, and by the last two kilometres it was clear that Limo was well on target for a new record. He came home in a stunning 27:34, smashing the course record by nearly thirty seconds, with Chirchir a minute behind him and Tekele only just beating the fourth placed Gadengoi Loitareng in a time of 28:56.
The adidas Women’s Race 5Km was a much more straightforward race. Priscah Ngetich, lining up as favourite in bib number 1, even though she had run just two days previously in Zurich, set off meaning business, and was never challenged for the lead. By the four kilometre mark she was a distance ahead of the field and looked as if she might even break the course record. In the end, she crossed the line in 15:32, just two seconds behind the 2002 event record time and half a minute faster than Bekele Tadelech who came home in 15:51, and Wambui Tabitha Gichia who finished in 15:56.
As was expected, the European runners gave a great showing in the adidas Women’s Race 5 km, Yelena Zadorozhnaya coming home in fourth place in 16:14 and Petra Kaminkova, the fastest of the Czech runners in eighth place in 17:01. The European men in the METRO 10k Race were always going to be up against it with such a strong African field taking part, but the excellent Russian, Dmitryj Safronov, came home in an exceptional 6th place in 29:29, with Milan Kocourek the best of the Czech runners in 12th place in 29:45.
Organisers for the IAAF
