Irina Mikitenko misses Chicago victory as Sammy Wanjiru sets a new Corse Record

October 13, 2009

In last Sundays Chicago marathon Irina Mikitenko took second place in her first marathon outside of Europe. The 37-year old German was beaten only by Russian Liliya Shobukhova (2:25:56 h), clocking a time of 2:26:31 h. The mens race was won by reigning Olympic Champion Sammy Wanjiru (KEN) with a new course record of 2:05:41 h.

With temperatures around the freezing point, the womens field went out rather slow. The first 5K were covered in 18:22min by the favourites. The race then got faster step-by-step but none of the pre-race favourites could build a gap on the opponents until very late in the race. Halfway was reached in 1:15:05 h – almost jogging tempo for some of the women. In the second half a quartet was build, that consisted of Irina Mikitenko, Lidiya Grigoryeva, Liliya Shobukhova (both Rus) and Teyba Erkesso (Eth). Only 3K before the finish a definitive increase in pace was established by the 31-year old Russian Liliya Shobukhova. A women with great track speed (5.000m PB 14:23,70), the Russian built a gap on her closest competitors pretty easy and finished her second marathon with an impressive negative split (1:15:05 + 1:10:51 h). After her third place finish in London 2009 behind Irina Mikitenko and Mara Yamauchi it was her first big victory. Irina Mikitenko had to settle with second place but nevertheless had a smile on her face and waved to the crowds on the last meters of the 42,195 kilometers. Defending Champion Lidiya Grigoryeva took 3rd place, 12 seconds behind Mikitenko.

In the mens race the pre-race favourite Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya took his 4th victory in his 5th marathon. Unlike the womens race, the men went out with a blistering pace, even being below world record splits for the first kilometers. After a 1:02:01 first half, the pace slowed down considerably but when Wanjiru threw in a surge just after 35K his opponents were left in the dust. With a time of 2:05:41, the 22-year old improved the Chicago marathon course record (Khalid Khannouchi, 2:05:41 h) by 1 second. Moroccan Abderrahim Goumri had a strong second half and collected runner-by-runner, eventually finishing second in 2:06:04 h. Third place went to Kenyan Vincent Kipruto (2:06:08 h).