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Kenya’s Angela Tanui and Eric Kiptanui won the Xiamen Marathon in the Tuscany, Italy area (Siena) on Sunday. Tanui broke the Italian all-comers’ record with her 2:20:08 performance at the elite-only race.
The race was put on to provide would-be Tokyo Olympians an opportunity to run qualifying times. It was a joint effort between the Italian Athletics Federation, World Athletics and the Xiamen Marathon. The race was organised so that competitors raced over a 5K loop at the Siena-Ampugnano Airport.
Tanui took more than five minutes off her personal best (PB). Kenyan Vivian Kiplagat held the previous all-comers’ best time in Italy at 2:22:25 from the running of the 2019 Milan Marathon.
Meanwhile, Kiptanui ran the second-fastest men’s time in the country. He finished the race in the time of 2:05:47. This is also a new pb. He previously ran 2:06:17 in the 2020 Dubai Marathon. Kenyan Titus Ekiru owns the record at 2:04:46, from the 2019 Milan Marathon.
SHOESTRINGS: Of interest perhaps to running fans and super shoe speculators is Richard Ringer’s performance. The German ran a new personal best of 2:08:49. In December he ran 2:10:59 on a very fast Valencia course. He has run fast at shorter distances, however, including a 27:36.52 performance over 10,000m in 2018. The now 32-year-old has also run 61:33 last month and in 2015 ran his best 5000m race in the time of 13:10.94.
Canadian Reid Coolsaet, at age 41, attempted to make the Tokyo Olympic team. He was looking for a 2:10, which is his personal best (2:10:28) run several times in his career, but admitted that he just didn’t have it on the day.
He posted on Twitter, “I ran 2:16:38 at the marathon this morning. The goal was 2:10 to try and qualify for the Canadian Olympic team. I went for it but simply didn’t have it. I split halfway in 1:05:16 and was optimistic I could stick on that pace. Stayed on pace through 27km.”
