{"id":2666,"date":"2015-05-05T10:01:42","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T16:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/?p=2666"},"modified":"2015-05-05T10:01:42","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T16:01:42","slug":"felix-kandie-wins-prague-marathon-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/news\/felix-kandie-wins-prague-marathon-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Felix Kandie wins Prague Marathon 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Felix<\/a><\/p>\n

Felix Kandie might well not have made it to the start line of the Volkswagen Prague Marathon on Sunday morning, feeling the effects of a sore throat. But he decided to give it a go and his resolution paid off handsomely. \u201cI wanted to see how far I could get,\u201d said Kandie. In the end, he went to the limit in the Czech capital. Coming from behind he took his second marathon win in a succession with another personal best. <\/p>\n

The 27 year-old improved to 2:08:32 in the Volkswagen Prague Marathon. Last November Kandie showed his strength to set a 2:10:37 course record in the Athens Marathon. Fellow-Kenyan Evans Chebet was runner-up for the second consecutive year with 2:08:50, followed by Ethiopia\u2019s Deribe Robi, who finished in 2:09:05.<\/p>\n

10,000 runners entered the Volkswagen Prague Marathon<\/h3>\n

Yebrgual Melese of Ethiopia clocked a fine 2:23:49 to take the women\u2019s race in Prague. It is the third fastest winning time in the history of the race that was first started in 1995. Portugal\u2019s Sara Moreira took second in her second marathon race with a personal best of 2:24:49, improving on her debut in New York last November by over a minute. Letebrhan Haylay of Ethiopia was third with 2:25:24.<\/p>\n

10,000 runners entered the Volkswagen Prague Marathon, which is an IAAF Gold Label Road Race.<\/p>\n

It might have helped Felix Kandie that the pace in the men\u2019s race was much slower than planned despite very good weather conditions. Kenyan pacemaker Benjamin Ngandu was supposed to pass through half way in just unter 63 minutes and he tried his best. However the group of favourites did not follow him. Ngandu was running 30 to 40 metres ahead of the first group. It was Hillary Kipchumba who then was on the heels of Ngandu and the pair reached half way in 64:00. While Ngandu dropped out after 27 k Evans Chebet moved up to Kipchumba. When they reached 30 k in 1:30:29 they were 22 seconds ahead of a chasing group of four with Kenyans Felix Kandie and Geoffrey Ronoh as well as Ethiopians Fikre Assefa and Deribe Robi. When last year\u2019s runner-up Chebet surged ahead with ten kilometres to go this looked like the decisive moment in the battle for victory.<\/p>\n

But then it was Kandie time in Prague. Breaking up the chasing group with a surge the Kenyan covered the 5 k section from 30 to 35 in 14:54. That propelled him within two seconds of the leader Chebet at 35 k. And it was soon after that he overtook the fellow Kenyan and built a big lead. \u201cI felt tired at around 39 k so I just made sure that I would win,\u201d said Kandie, the man who had broken the course record of Italy\u2019s 2004 Olympic Champion Stefano Baldini in Athens last year.<\/p>\n

With a time of 2:08:32 Kandie was 18 seconds ahead of Evans Chebet, who was not disappointed on missing out on victory for a second time in a row. \u201cI had a leg problem in the build up to the race. So this time I am really happy with the second place. Hopefully I can finally achieve victory next year,\u201d said Chebet. Behind Ethiopians Deribe Robi and Fikre Assefa, who ran 2:09:05 and 2:10:01 respectively, Geoffrey Ronoh finished fifth with 2:10:52. The Kenyan improved by almost five minutes. He had hoped for a much faster time though and was on course for that when he ran in third place after 35 k. But during the final section Ronoh tired and lost a lot of ground.<\/p>\n

In contrast to the men\u2019s event the women\u2019s race was much faster during the first half. It was Kenya\u2019s Janet Rono who stormed away with her pacemaker soon after the start. Passing 10 k in 33:45 she was on course for a sub 2:23 time. Sara Moreira followed in second with 34:08 and another 16 seconds back there was the big group with all the Ethiopian contenders. There was no change of this order at half way (71:43), but Rono began to slow and the Ethiopians were starting to close the gaps.<\/p>\n

When Moreira was caught she managed to hang on, but once the group reached Rono the Kenyan was quickly dropped. They then passed 30 k in 1:42:53 and Moreira was the only non-Ethiopian left in the leading group, running besides Yebrgual Melese, Tadelech Bekele, Haylay Letebrhan and Ashete Bekere. Bekele and Bekere could not hold on much longer. And when 25 year-old Melese, who won this year\u2019s Houston Marathon in January with a personal best of 2:23:23, surged the small group broke up. Melese looked very strong in the final five kilometres and finished in 2:23:49, exactly one minute ahead of Moreira. Haylay followed in third with 2:25:24 while Rono managed to secure fourth place in 2:26:31. With six runners finishing inside 2:28 the race had a very good depth. Only Dubai, London and Paris had more runners inside this time this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my plan to save some energy for the second half. This is why I chose a more careful approach and did not start that fast,\u201d said Yebrgual Melese. Second placed Sara Moreira was more than happy with her performance. \u201cI had a leg injury so I could not run London. I was looking for another opportunity and was happy to get the chance to run Prague,\u201d said Sara Moreira, who ran her marathon debut in New York last November, finishing third in 2:26:00. 29 year-old Moreira looks capable of finally breaking Rosa Mota\u2019s 30 year-old Portugese record of 2:23:29, set in finishing third in Chicago.<\/p>\n

Results (TV editors please note that front bib shows names)<\/p>\n

Men:
\n1. Felix Kandie KEN 2:08:32
\n2. Evans Chebet KEN 2:08:50
\n3. Deribe Robi ETH 2:09:05
\n4. Fikre Assefa ETH 2:10:01
\n5. Geoffrey Ronoh KEN 2:10:52
\n6. Raymond Chemungor KEN 2:12:09
\n7. Jamel Chatbi ITA 2:12:17
\n8. Hillary Kipchumba KEN 2:13.01
\n9. Gilbert Yegon KEN 2:13:29
\n10. Tesfaye Belay ETH 2:13:59<\/p>\n

Women:
\n1. Yebrgual Melese ETH 2:23:49
\n2. Sara Moreira POR 2:24:49
\n3. Letebrhan Haylay ETH 2:25:24
\n4. Janet Rono KEN 2:26:31
\n5. Ashete Bekere ETH 2:26:55
\n6. Betelhem Moges ETH 2:27:20
\n7. Afera Godfay ETH 2:32:44
\n8. Halima Hussen ETH 2:32:51
\n9. Iulia Andreeva KGZ 2:37:37
\n10. Koren Jelela ETH 2:37:42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Felix Kandie might well not have made it to the start line of the Volkswagen Prague Marathon on Sunday morning, feeling the effects of a sore throat. But he decided to give it a go and his resolution paid off handsomely. \u201cI wanted to see how far I could get,\u201d said Kandie. In the end, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18,29,1,45],"tags":[95,366,713],"class_list":["post-2666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-featured","category-kenya","category-news","category-prague","tag-95","tag-felix-kandie","tag-prague"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}