Ruth Chepngetich secured the first gold medal of the 2019 Athletics World Championships in Doha for Kenya with victory in the women’s marathon.
The third fastest marathoner of all-time, Chepngetich arrived as favourite, but victory was far from straight forward in a messy race run in brutal conditions, with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees despite the race being run at midnight to avoid the worst of the Qatari heat.
The 25-year-old eventually kicked away from defending champion Rose Chelimo, of Bahrain, to win by just over a minute in a time of 2:32:43, with Namibia’s Helalia Johannes taking the bronze as three different countries won medals.
Chepngetich looked to have made the first significant break just after passing the 10km mark, and had extended her lead to around ten seconds three kilometres later, but was soon reeled in by a chase group led by fellow Kenyan Edna Kiplagat.
A group of five led by more than half a minute past halfway, but Visiline Jepkesho fell away as they went through 25km in 1:31:01 as the pace steadied.
That left Chepngetich, Chelimo, Kiplagat and Johannes battling for the three medals, with Israel’s Lornah Salpeter trying and failing to latch onto the back of the group as she was made to pay for a chaotic start to the race, eventually joining the plethora drop-outs.
Chepngetich finally made the decisive move as the remaining quartet took the bell to signal the start of the last of six seven-kilometre circuits.
It was a disappointing evening from a British perspective. Tish Jones had already been forced to withdraw through injury earlier on Friday morning, leaving Charlotte Purdue as GB’s only starter, but the 28-year-old was one of many who failed to complete the course, dropping out shortly after the 15km mark.
