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Tokyo, Jan 23, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Standard Chartered's Greatest Race on Earth (GROE) athletes John Kelai and Yang Ziao Shu today both came home first in the men's and women's Mumbai Marathon. Their victories will give hope to their teams in this unique marathon relay series, as Kelai's team Team Gowar and Yang's Team China were only 16th and 4th in their respective competitions going into this third leg.
A mere 18 years old, and having run just two marathons in the past, both in her homeland China, Yang entered the marathon as a relative unknown. Her winning time of 2:36:16 placed her ahead of the likes of marathon legend Tegla Laroupe and Leila Aman, and reduces the gap to the third-placed team in the Women's Team Challenge, Grazy Girls, from 28 minutes to 19 mintues.
Yang said: "I just felt really strong and when I caught the leaders up at 38 kilometres, I knew I was going to win. Our team position after the second marathon in Singapore wasn't as good as we'd expected so the pressure was on me to produce a good performance, and that kept me going." Laroupe clocked 2:42:52 to push her team Run for Peace up one place to second, whilst Cyclone remain first nearly 18 minutes ahead of the chasing pack after a 2:38:13 run by Jennifer Chesinon.
Kelai's winning time of 2:12:27 improved Team Gowar's position in the Main Team Challenge an astonishing ten places, leaving them now in sixth and just one place below a prize-winning spot. Kelai, from Kenya, beat off strong competition from pre-race favourite Melese Asfaw Gashaw who was running for team Akaki. The Ethiopian finished just five seconds behind Kelai and in doing so elevated his team four places to 3rd place overall. Still leading the race for the first place prize of US$400,000 is Marathon Centre Kericho, for whom Robert Kipyego clocked 2:14:59. They are now just 44 seconds ahead of Kericho in overall second place.
The Nations Challenge looks set for an exciting finale in the last leg in Hong Kong, with the top three teams just four minutes apart. Now leading the race for the solid Gold Baton trophy for the first time this series are reigning champions Kenya. A run of 2:15:08 by their runner Vincent Kiplagat Kiptoo puts them ahead of Zimbabwe in second and previous leaders Uganda.
Leading their respective regional competitions after the Mumbai leg are: Indonesia (South East Asia); Taiwan (North East Asia); Sri Lanka (South Asia); Australia (Europe & Oceania); Mexico (Americas) and Kenya (Africa).
