Maritim claims fourth Sydney Marathon title

Kenya’s Julius Maritim has won the 2008 Blackmores Marathon for the fourth year in a row with a time of 02:19:01. On a hot Sydney morning, Maratim led from the beginning and finished five minutes ahead of his countryman Benson Mbithi (2:24:10), while Sydney runner Jeremey Horne finished third with a time of 2:33:17.

“I like the Sydney Marathon and I’m glad to make it four in a row – maybe I will make if five next year,” said a beaming Maratim.

“Today it was perfect weather, especially compared to last year which was cold in the morning.”

Maratim and Mbithi had planned to pace each other for the race, but at the two hour mark, Maratim was running at a faster and more consistent pace and decided to extend his lead.

“At the 35-40km mark, it was a bit challenging and I was feeling a bit tired,” said Maratim.

“You need to be smart to attack the last five kilometres of the course”.

The first woman in the Blackmores Sydney Marathon was Queensland’s Lisa Flint (2:47:43), followed by Caringbah’s Magda Karimali-Poulos (2:48:54) and Canberra’s World Champion Triathlete Jackie Fairweather (2:53:43).

Australian Paralympian Richard Nicholson, who only arrived home from Beijing yesterday, won the wheelchair Marathon (01:56:52), with Paul Nunnari second (2:15:00) and Ian Rhode in third place (2:26:00).

A total of 25,300 entrants took part in today’s Blackmores Sydney Running Festival, setting a new participation record for the biggest running festival in Australia. They included cricket legend Glenn McGrath with children James and Holly and mother Beverley, who were walking to help raise funds for the McGrath Foundation.

The field also included more than 960 international runners from 41 countries and hundreds of people from around Australia.

The Blackmores Half Marathon was won by Canberra’s Gomechu Woyecha in a time of 1:06:18, followed by Josphat Mwangi (1:07:07) and Colin Johnston of Kellyville Ridge (1:09:24). Ethiopian born Woyecha is now living in Australia and has been training with Robert de Castella in Canberra.

The first woman across the line in the Blackmores Half Marathon was Jenny Wickham of Allambie Heights (1:18:03). Second in the women was Willoughby’s Tara Prowse (1:19:22) and Thailand’s Pacharee Chaitongrsi (1:22:05) was third.

More than 12,000 people took part in the 9km Sunday Telegraph body + soul Bridge Run which was won by Bulli’s Ryan Gregson (00:26:16), followed by Ben St Lawrence of Centennial Park (00:26:26) and Cloverlly’s Harry Summers (00:27:27). The first woman across the line was Lara Tamwsett of Kinsgford (00:29:27), with Hollie Emery of Penrith (00:31:03) in second place and Liz Miller of Randwick (00:31:43) third.

Courtesy of http://www.sydneymarathon.org/