Kosgei looking good for Belgrade title
2006-04-20
Japhet Kosgei a seasoned
Kenyan performer will start favourite to win the 19th Belgrade Marathon on
Saturday.
Kosgei a past Rotterdam,
Toyo and Lake Biwa, another Japanes marathon champion, has three times clocked
under two hours eight minutes for the distance.
The African also
runner-up in the 2001 New York City meeting, has a personal best of two hours
seven minutes and nine seconds, which he achieved with his Netherland´s victory
seven years ago.
The women´s favourite,
Halina Karnatsevitch of Belarus, has won seven of her 17 marathons, her best
time, 2.27.14 achieved when finishing 12th in last summer´s IAAF
World Championships in Helsinki.
Chemokil Chilapong could
threaten her east European rival. The 29-year-old Kenyan mother of four had
never raced until two years ago.
Then her husband sold one
of the family goats to send her to the Nairobi Marathon where she defeated
fellow countrywoman Joyce Chepchumba, a former Olympic bronze
medallist.
It proved a big
payday for the Chilapong family with her promptly repaying her husband´s investment by winning in 2.39.09.
The victory at high
altitude in the Kenyan capital, won her a purse of a million Kenyan shillings
($US15000) a fortune given the cost of living standards iun her
homeand.
DAVID MARTIN
