Kenyans clean sweep Kilimanjaro marathon races

Kenyan runners on Sunday turned the 2006 Kilimanjaro International Marathon into one of their own training drills by sweeping both the men's and women's full-distance races.

Daniel Kipnjetich, Musa Kanda and John Tussi chalked up a one-two-three finish for the east African nation in the men's 42.195-kilometer race by clocking two hours 18 minutes 32 seconds, 2:19:18, and 2:19:19 respectively.

Race hosts Tanzania managed a fourth place through Osward Reverian who was timed 2:20:30 in the race that also drew runners from Austria, Australia, Belgium,Britain, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, the United States, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Kenya placed four more runners in the top 10 finishers of the men's race held at an average altitude of 1,800 meters above sea level at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain peak at 5,895 meters.

Fario Guss saved some face of the host nation of Tanzania by kicking hard to pass the finish line 50 seconds in front of Kenya's Emily Cheptuya.

Kenya's Magreth Kiplagati won the women's race with a clocking of two hours 58 minutes 37 seconds while the silver and bronze medals went to Guss and Cheptuya who were timed 2:59:26 and 3:00:36 respectively.

Vanda Amos from South Africa and Chris Walter of Ireland managed to finish within the top 10 by clocking 3:54:50 and 4:01:28 to place ninth and 10th overall.

The annual Kilimanjaro International Marathon race is included in the IAAF calendar for the year and is known for its tough altitude surroundings.

Source: Xinhua