Kenya’s Stacy Ndiwa took the honors in the women marathon at the Cali Marathon held on Sunday (03) in Cali, Columbia.
Ndiwa, Gladys Chesir and Emmah Ndiwa as well as Nazret Weldu of Eritrea and Ethiopia’s Sadiya Awel formed an early leading group. After they passed 10k in 34:35 the pace was picked up. While Chesir and Weldu were dropped the leading trio reached half way in 73:18. But as in the men’s race the second half was considerably slower due to the humidity. When Sadiya Awel stopped at a refreshment table at 25k to look for her bottle she then immediately sprinted to get back to the leaders. However this probably took too much energy from the Ethiopian, who lost contact to the Kenyans soon afterwards.
The duel between the Ndiwas was decided with around eight kilometres to go. Defending champion Emmah Ndiwa was unable to hold on and lost ground while Stacy Ndiwa continued to follow the pacemaker. “My training had gone well so I was quite confident of winning and was hoping to run about 2:26. We were on pace at halfway, but I was getting tired, so we had to slow down,” said 33 year-old Stacy Ndiwa, who was ninth in Boston last year with her PB of 2:23:29. “After 35k I felt Emmah was beginning to struggle to keep up, so I pushed a bit harder and was able to get away and then hold my lead until the end. “
LEADING RESULTS
42KM WOMEN
- Stacy Ndiwa KEN 2:29.55
- Emmah Ndiwa KEN 2:31.01
- Gladys Chesir KEN 2:33.59
- Sadiya Awel ETH 2:34.25
- Cynthia Kosgei KEN 2:35.22
- Nazret Weldu ERI 2:37.49
- Mildrey Echavarria COL 2:40.45
- Kellys Arias COL 2:41.50