South Africa's Mluleki Nobanda and Russia's Anfissa Kossatcheva won the men's and women's gold in the 2002 Taipei International Marathon yesterday.
By the time the sun started to color the skies over Taipei, the athletes had already covered a big part of a race that took them from Taipei City Hall to near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, then Tienmu, Neihu, the banks of the Tamshui River and all the way back to Taipei City Hall.
The starting gun was fired just after 5:30am yesterday and Nobanda, 34, finished the 42.195km race in two hours, 14 minutes and 37 seconds. This was just over two-and-a-half minutes slower than his personal best marathon time of 2 hours, 12 minutes and 13 seconds. The South African policeman and father of three said he was used to training at high altitudes and he found running in Taipei's sea-level atmosphere to be a "comfortable" experience compared to his African training grounds.
Nobanda was very positive about the race in general. He said that the conditions were perfect for such a marathon and he thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.
Nobanda also had many good words for the Taiwanese people's hospitality, saying he enjoyed his stay very much.
He picked up NT$100,000 (US$3,000) in prize money for his win, as did the winner of the women's race, Kossatcheva. The men's and women's second-place winners both picked up NT$50,000, while third places received NT$25,000 and fourth places NT$15,000.
More than 500 foreigners and 15,000 Taiwanese took part in the marathon, which began and finished at the Taipei City Hall.
The athletes followed a route that started at the Taipei City Hall and went up Ren Ai Rd., turning into Chungshan Rd. and going all the way up to and over the New Chungshan Bridge, until the athletes turned into Fulin Rd. and labored around in Tienmu.
They then headed toward and through the Tze Chiang Express Tunnel, before heading to section one of Neihu Rd., crossing the Huantang Rd. MacArthur No. 2 Bridge and going on to the Taipei East-West Elevated Expressway, all the way west up to Huanho North Rd. From there they ran into the riverside park alongside the Tamshui river and headed to the Hwa Chung Bridge, where they turned around and went up the expressway again, all the way east to the Keelung Rd. exit, from where they maneuvered into the final approach (New Ren Ai Rd.) to the Taipei City Hall, where the race ended.
Kenya's Matthew Birir and Jesse Maina, both 30, won the second and third places of the men's race. Birir finished just over three minutes behind winner Nobanda, with a time of two hours, 17 minutes and 41 seconds, while Maina came in just over two minutes later with a time of two hours, 20 minutes and one second.
In the women's category, Russian runner Anfissa Kossatcheva, 36, led the pack with 2:36:24, compared to her previous best of 2:34:12.
Following closely behind her were Poland's Violetta Uryga, 34, and Kenya's Jacqueline Jertich Chebor, 33, who clocked 2:37:36 and 2:45:34 respectively.
The marathon was organized by the Taipei City Government and the Taipei Running Association.
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