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.
PHOTO: CNA
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.
Rangers on Wednesday bowed out of the UEFA Champions League playoffs with a humiliating 6-0 defeat at the hands of Club Brugge which piles further pressure on head coach Russell Martin, while SL Benfica secured a place in the competition proper at the expense of Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce. The Glasgow giants traveled to Belgium right up against it after losing 3-1 at home in last week’s first leg, when they conceded three times in the opening 20 minutes. They never looked like turning the tie around as Club Brugge took the lead inside five minutes at the Jan Breydelstadion through Nicolo Tresoldi
Australian Alex de Minaur reached the second week of the US Open for the third year in a row with little fanfare on Saturday and said he intended to keep winning until the tournament organizers were forced to give him better billing. Despite being the eighth seed and a quarter-finalist last year at Flushing Meadows, De Minaur’s third-round match against German Daniel Altmaier was scheduled for Court 17 — the smallest of the four stadium venues in the precinct. “It is a little bit of a headscratcher for me. I’m not gonna lie,” he told reporters after progressing 6-7 (9/7), 6-3, 6-4,
Noah Lyles on Thursday warmed up for the upcoming athletics world championships by chasing down Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo to win the 200m at the Diamond League final. Lyles trailed Tebogo at the start, but gradually erased the deficit over the final 100m and pipped the Botswana sprinter to the line by centimeters. Lyles, the Olympic 100m champion and reigning world champion in both the 100m and 200m, clocked 19.74 seconds in a slight headwind. Tebogo was 0.02 seconds behind. It was Lyles’ sixth Diamond League title, a record for track athletes. “Six, that’s a big number,” Lyles said. “Shoot, that’s another record on
Brentford striker Yoane Wissa says he wants to leave the English Premier League club and that it is “unduly standing in my way.” A day before the end of soccer’s summer transfer period, Wissa posted a lengthy statement on social media yesterday criticizing Brentford for rejecting an apparent offer from another Premier League club despite his willingness to switch between the teams. Wissa, a reported target for Newcastle, is yet to play for Brentford this season and had already removed any association with the club from his Instagram account. Yesterday, the 28-year-old DR Congo international took it a step further on the social
RSS