Bengaluru World 10K: Mwaniki, Kasait triumph

BENGALURU: Kenyans again ruled the city roads on Sunday with their blistering pace and fine teamwork as Peter Mwaniki and Lilian Kasait emerged on top in the 16th edition of the TCS World 10K Bengaluru here. Over 30,000 avid runners converged at the city centre early this morning to compete in various race categories despite the prevailing heat wave and a challenging new course.

Though both the Kenyan champions failed to clock an event record time, they battled past their rivals in style. Mwaniki made it a memorable debut as he won in 28:15s, which was much slower than his third-place winning time in Valencia in January. Kasait timed 30:56s after taking over from favourite Emmaculate Achol, who holds the world's second fastest time, at around the 7km mark. Achol, who faced problems with her diet from the day she landed here, settled for the second spot but was soon in discomfort. She almost fainted during the prize distribution ceremony and was rushed to the hospital.

"The temperature was very high, but I overcame the heat to win the title. It's a good day for me and I'm proud to be in India and win the Bengaluru 10K. It was a good course, but the race was competitive. When I reached the 5km mark, my body responded, and I decided to go all out. And when my fellow competitors chased me, I got the extra motivation to run hard," Mwaniki, who pocketed $26,000, told reporters.

"We were expecting the pacemaker to take us through to the 5km mark. But he dropped out at the 2km mark and from there we had to push ourselves. If he had stayed till the halfway mark, we could have tried for the record," the 26-year-old champion added. His compatriot Hillary Chepkwony came in a distant second in 28:33. Ethiopian Hagos Eyob prevented a Kenyan sweep by finishing third in 28:39.

Kasait, the winner of the silver medal at the World Cross Country Championship in Serbia last month, said it was a tough battle with Achol.

FINE SHOW BY INDIANS

The Indian men came up with a fine show as Kiran Matre managed a top-10 finish. The 22-year-old clocked his personal best time of 29:32, a new event record, to finish ninth ahead of Tanzania's 17-yearold John Wele. The top six Indians finished under 30 minutes. "I train in Bengaluru with the help of my coaches Yunus Khan and Ajith Markose," said the 22-year-old Matre. Ranjeet Kumar Patel (29:35) and Dharmendra (29:45) finished second and third respectively.

In the women's section, Sanjivani Jadhav regained her crown in a time of 34:03s. She was followed by Lilli Das - making her road debut - in 34:13. Preenu Yadav finished third in 34:24. First to be flagged off from Cubbon Road in front of the Sam Manekshaw Parade ground at 6.45am was the elite women's race which was followed by the men's race at 7.30am.