The victory for Kosgei, who was accompanied to Singapore and supported by her family, maintains her team Cyclone’s position as leaders of the GROE Women’s Team Challenge. They now have a cumulative time of 5:04:41, putting them over nine minutes ahead of their nearest rivals Grazy Girls, with both the first leg in Nairobi and now the second leg in Singapore complete.
Mutai’s spirited run for Marathon Centre Kericho has lifted his team’s position from 14th in the GROE Main Team Challenge to lead position. Previous leaders Run for Fun team dropped to 20th position, despite being represented by one of the pre-marathon favourites Joseph Ngolepus.
The Standard Chartered GROE, with a total prize pool of US$1.5 million, is a team relay of four challenging marathons in Nairobi, Singapore, Mumbai and Hong Kong. The field of elite athletes and emerging talent sped away from the start-line at 6am along the Esplanade Drive, all taking on Singapore’s heat and humidity.
The 2006/07 GROE Series sees participation from over 30 countries, the focus of which is the Nations Challenge. Zimbabwe’s Oliver Kandiero shone in Singapore, as he stormed through the course to finish with a time of 2:21:23. This puts them in third place in the Nations Challenge, closing the gap to Kenya in second to just half a minute. Uganda remain first thanks to a strong run by Ugandan Joeseph Nsubuga with a time of 2:23:56, leading the chase for the coveted GROE Gold Baton trophy at the halfway stage.
The regional competitions within the Nations Challenge are poised for a highly competitive second half to the competition after the first two marathons.
India still leads the South Asia region with national representative Ajeet Sing completing the course in 2:33:23. Close rivals Sri Lanka, only 1 minute and 13 seconds behind, are in second, with Pakistan in third spot.
A tremendous marathon by Todd Ingraham in a time of 2:35:14 has taken Australia to lead position in the Oceania & Europe region. Previous leaders Ireland drops a place to second but are only 1 minute 20 seconds behind. Finland has moved up into third place.
In the South East Asia region, Indonesia leads Thailand by a massive 15 minutes, with Vietnam in third place.
In the North East Asia region, Taiwan maintains their lead over South Korea by a margin of 20 minutes, while the Hong Kong team are in third place, a further 28 minutes behind.
In the Americas region, a truly brilliant race by Juan Escalante, who trains at altitude, finished for Mexico in a time 2:31:51, taking them above Argentina. The gap between the two is 34 minutes 10 seconds.
In another increase on last year’s turn-out, it was estimated that nearly 28,000 runners participated in the Singapore Marathon event.
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