It was a day of near misses at the 9th edition of the RAK Half Marathon as the men’s field chose to watch each other and ran strategically, while the women set off perhaps too fast and paid the price.

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New York Marathon champion Mary Keitany pulverised a high quality field, posting yet another astonishing time on the way to her third RAK title.

 

 

Her run to 66:02, appeared early on to be a definite assault on Florence Kiplagat’s astonishing 65:12 world record of this time last year, and for well past half way, things were going to plan.

The 32-year-old passed 10k in 31:07 (Kiplagat 31:08), held the requisite tempo (3:05/km) until the 14th kilometre and at 15km (46:42), she was only seven seconds down on Kiplagat’s mark from Barcelona.

But she had to give ground, covering the second 10km in 31:28 (Kiplagat 30:48). Two kilometres later it became apparent that the target was now her course record of 65:50. 

But while that slipped by too, the reason could well have been the need to focus on the race at hand, for 22-year-old Mamitu Daska of Ethiopia, proved a stubborn challenger when others had receded.

In the men’s race, a dawdling first 5km of 14:33 was many seconds off the mark, but it did contribute to the sense of anticipation, as the tempo remained awkwardly slow.

With 10k reached in 28:56, it was natural to expect a surge, but when it did manifest itself, it was not decisive enough and the pack was still nine strong at 15km. 

At this point, with any chance of a fast time gone, the athletes started watching each other and it became apparent that even breaking one hour was unlikely.

Sure enough, while the packing through the finish line was impressive, the overall winning mark was not as fast as the organisers had hoped.

Mosinet Geremew’s 60:05 was only six seconds ahead of Edwin Kiptoo’s fourth place and pre-race favourite Kipchoge, had to settle for sixth.