Prisons officer bursts bank with Boston triumph

Venturing into the unknown sometimes pays off. As it twice did for Kenya’s Salina Jebet Kosgei on the streets of Paris five years ago and on the 42.2-kilometre course from Boston’s hilly suburbs to its centre on Monday.

In both the Paris and Boston marathons, Kosgei patiently waited behind the race leaders and attacked when it mattered most to steal her victories.

In Paris, Kosgei, an officer with Kenya Prisons Service, pulled away from Ethiopia’s Asha Gigi after the two had been together for the first 31 kilometres with the Kenyan going on to win easily in two hours 24 minutes and 32 seconds.

And on Patriots’ Day in Boston on Monday, Kosgei, 32, who has a marathon personal best time of 2:23:22 set in Berlin in 2006, beat Tune and home girl Kara Goucher in a three-way sprint to win the world’s oldest annual marathon.

The Kenyan’s winning time was 2:32.16 and earned her $150,000 (about Sh12 million). The win also placed Kosgei at the top of the women’s leader board for the 2009-2010 World Marathon Majors title with 25 points.

The two-year series incorporates marathons run in Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York with a prize tag for the overall winner of Sh40 million ($500,000).

Ethiopia’s Deriba Merga, 28, finished in 2:08.42 comfortably beating Kenya’s Daniel Rono and Ryan Hall of the United States to the men’s title by nearly a minute in the 113th edition of the Boston race.

‘Mwafrika’ dropped out

The Ethiopian’s victory broke a three-year winning streak for Kenyan Robert “Mwafrika” Cheruiyot, who faded from the leading pack before the top of Heartbreak Hill, the steepest climb on the course which starts just after 20 miles, and soon dropped out.

Merga broke from the pack with about three miles to go to cruise on his own through Boston’s streets to victory.

“At 23 miles I decided that it was time to push,” Merga told reporters after winning the $150,000 prize.

The women’s race ended in drama, with Kosgei winning by a mere second from the defending champion Tune in a final three-way sprint. Tune collapsed after crossing the line and was carried off on a stretcher for observation at a local hospital.

American Goucher was third.

The women’s pack kept a slow pace for much of the race until the final five miles when Goucher stepped it up. Kosgei said the slow pace early on had made her nervous.

“I’ve never run as slow a race like this today,” she said. “I was a little scared.”

African men have won nine of the last 10 editions of the 26.2 mile (42.2 km) race from Boston’s hilly suburbs to its centre. African women have won eight.

The last American woman to win was Lisa Larsen-Weidenbach in 1985, and the last man was Greg Meyer in 1983.

Merga ascends to second place in the World Marathon Majors’ men’s leader board after the win in Boston.

Kosgei’s thrilling sprint victory over Tune added to the points she earned from a fourth-place finish in last year’s London Marathon to move her in a three-way tie in third place for this year’s WMM at 30 points, the same as Alevtina Biktimirova (Russia) and Constantina Dita (Romania).

Kosgei was born in Simotwo in Keiyo near Iten town. She is married to Barnabas Kinyor, Kenya’s 1994 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist in the 400m hurdles. The couple have a son, Billy, born in 1996, and daughter, Ruth, born in 2001.

Kosgei, was originally a heptathlete, winning four consecutive schools’ titles before she turned to the 800 metres with a personal best time of 2:01.0.

She just missed out on a bronze medal in the two-lap race at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada.

Kosgei gradually moved up in distance and recorded personal best times of 15:01.79 in the 5,000m and 31:27.83 for the 10,000m.

But her first major breakthrough came at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002 where she struck gold in the 10,000m.

Her disappointing show in the 10,000m at the 2003 World Championships in Paris (18th place) led to her decision to return to the French capital the following year and try marathon running.

But it is her victory in Boston on Monday that propels her to the top of the world becoming her first victory in any of the Big City races where she becomes at centre focus to contest for the lucrative Sh40 million WMM title.

Kenya’s Samuel Wanjiru and Irina Mikitenko of Germany will look to hold onto their first-place standing when they run in the London Marathon on Sunday, the second of six races in the series.

At the conclusion of the two-year series in New York in November, the male and female point leaders will each be awarded the $500,000.

Wanjiru remains atop the standings with 40 points, while Merga moves within 10 points of first-place with 30 overall.