Kenya’s Erick Kiptanui and Ethiopia’s Gelete Burka were the overwhelming victors at Madrid’s 53th San Silvestre Vallecana, an IAAF Silver Label road race, on Sunday (31).
While unheralded Kiptanui produced the race’s third fastest ever time by clocking 27:34, Burka stormed to a 30:55 victory to miss her own race record by just two seconds.
Spain’s Daniel Mateo, who had finished a creditable eighth at the European Cross Country Championships in Samorin, was the early leader. The first uphill kilometre was covered in a not particularly quick 2:48 split.
The following kilometres were dominated by Britain’s Chris Thompson, Ireland’s Paul Pollock and the evergreen Spaniard Jesús España.
They reached the third kilometre in 8:25 while the Kenyan pair of Kiptanui and Amos Korir plus last year’s champion Nguse Amlosom ran comfortably tucked behind.
Spain’s European 10,000m bronze medallist Toni Abadía tried then to run away from the heading group and he opened a 10-second gap but his leadership was short-lived and he was caught shortly afterwards.
The halfway point was reached in 13:51 and some metres later the Kenyan tandem injected a much brisker to pace to easily break away from the rest of the pack.
Kiptanui and Korir took turns in the lead while Abadía, Amlosom and España fiercely fought for the third place in the podium.
It was during the eighth kilometre when the 27-year-old Kiptanui left his young compatriot without any winning chances as he barely slowed down his rhythm on the uphill section of the race.
The Kenyan flew through the closing stages to romp home in 27:34 – a clocking bettered in this race only by Eliud Kipchoge and Zersenay Tadese. Kirui had to settle for the runner-up spot in 27:48 to improve on his career best by one minute and 43 seconds.
Abadía got rid of Amlosom and España to take third in 28:24 while the Eritrean came fourth after a thrilling battle with España, 28:35 and 28:36 their respective times.