Kenyan athletes set two new information in Tokyo (VIDEOS)

Agnes Ngetich and Alexander Mutiso gained the ladies’s and males’s races regardless of a difficult course

Kenyan runners Agnes Ngetich and Alexander Mutiso set new course information after successful the ladies’s and males’s races on the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon in Japan on Sunday.

Ngetich completed the 21.1km race in a single hour, 4 minutes and 23 seconds (1:04:23), reducing three minutes off the earlier girls’s course document. Her compatriot Tabitha Njeri Kamau got here second in 1:08:28, in line with the outcomes.

Mutiso gained the lads’s competitors in 59 minutes and 51 seconds, beating the earlier course document by one second. He completed 5 seconds forward of fellow Kenyan Kiprono Sitonik, who took second place. 

Speaking after the race, Ngetich stated she that was happy together with her victory and shocked by her ending time. She additionally famous that the course had been difficult, with hills and quite a few sharp turns. “I didn’t think I’ll get that time. The course was not easy,” she stated.

Mutiso stated his victory had boosted his confidence forward of his subsequent marathon. He defined that he made his decisive transfer on a hilly part of the course between the 17km and 18.5km marks.

“I feel good. I see now I am in a good position to prepare well for [my] coming marathon,” he stated.

The course started and ended at Japan’s National Stadium and adopted roads used throughout the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. 

Ngetich’s victory got here lower than a month after she broke the women-only half marathon world document on the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen. The 25-year-old accomplished that race in 1:05:15.

READ MORE: Kenyan breaks two-hour mark in world document London Marathon win (PHOTOS/VIDEO)

Kenyan distance runners have additionally recorded main victories in different worldwide competitions this 12 months. In April, Sebastian Sawe turned the primary athlete to finish an official aggressive marathon in below two hours, successful the London Marathon in a world-record 1:59:30. Fellow Kenyan John Korir additionally gained the Boston Marathon that month, setting a course document of two:01:52.

READ MORE: African athlete units new half marathon world document

The London Marathon additionally noticed a record-breaking efficiency within the girls’s race. Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa set a brand new girls’s-only marathon world document of two:15:50.