• Kiplagat won the women’s race in 2:22:25, well under Galina Bogomolova’s previous Italian all-comers record of 2:22:53 set in Rome in 2008.
• In the men’s race, a nine-man pack set off at a fast pace going through 10 kilometres in 29:31.
Image: IAAF
Running in rainy but cool conditions, Titus Ekiru and Vivian Kiplagat shattered the Italian all-comers records at the 19thGenerali Milano Marathon, an IAAF Silver Label Race, on Sunday (7).
Ekiru clocked 2:04:46 to smash his previous PB of 2:07:43 he set in Seville last year and the 2:07:13 Italian all-comers mark set by Edwin Koech in 2017.
Kiplagat won the women’s race in 2:22:25, well under Galina Bogomolova’s previous Italian all-comers record of 2:22:53 set in Rome in 2008.
In the men’s race, a nine-man pack set off at a fast pace going through 10 kilometres in 29:31.
That leading group was whittled down to five by the half-way point, with Koech, Ekiru, Tedesse Senebeta, Evans Chebet and Justus Kimutai passing the 21.1km marker in 1:02:29. A quartet formed by Chebet, Kimutai, Ekiru and Koech stepped up the pace, reaching 30 kilometres in 1:28:38 at 30 km.
Then, Ekiru made his move, breaking away from Chebet and Koech, passing 35 kilometres in 1:43:28 and 40 in 1:58:22 before crossing the line alone with the fourth fastest time of the year.
“I did not expect to run so fast,” said Ekiru, who won his fourth career marathon after victories in Seville 2017 with 2:07:43, Mexico City 2018 with 2:10:38 and Honolulu 2018 with 2:09:01.
“The weather conditions were not bad and the race course was very fast. I tried my best and at 30 kilometres I could push the pace by myself.”
Chebet, the fastest runner in the field with a PB of 2:05:30, finished runner-up in 2:07:22 ahead of Koech (2:08:24) and Hosea Maiyo Kiprono (2:09:02).
In the women’s race, Kiplagat took the early lead going through 10 kilometres in 33:47 with a four-second lead over 2009 world 10,000m bronze medallist Wude Ayalew Yimer from Ethiopia and Kenya’s Joan Jepchirchir Kigen. The race then turned into a one-woman show when Kiplagat went through the halfway mark in a fast 1:11:06 with a gap of 1:29 over Kigen.
Kiplagat exended it to more than four minutes by 30 kilometres before adding to it with each passing kilometre to eventually win by more than ten minutes. Kiplagat, 27, also broke Margaret Okayo’s race record of 2:24:59 set in 2002.
Kiplagat ran in Milan for the third consecutive year after clocking 2:32:37 in 2017 and 2:27:08 in 2018. She also clocked her half marathon best of 1:09:05 on Italian soil in Verbania in 2017.
Kigen finished a distant runner-up with 2:32.32 ahead of Ayelu Abele Hordofa (2:37:50).