•His win came almost four years after triumphing at the New York Healthy Kidney 10km run
•It was equally a close race in the women's half marathon where Irene Cheptai finished second behind Ethiopian Senbere Teferi
•In Lille Half Marathon, Kibiwott Kandie finished second behind Ugandan Andrew Kwemoi
Image: ERICK BARASA
The 2018 World Under 20 10,000m champion Rhonex Kipruto admits he is falling in love with New York City after his win in the half marathon on Sunday.
Rhonex clocked 1:00:30 ahead of fellow countryman Edwin Cheserek (1:00:37) as Ethiopian Teshome Mekonen (1:00:40) finished third.
His win came almost four years after triumphing at the New York Healthy Kidney 10km run where he clocked 27:08 to cross the finish line.
"I am very happy to be back here and to win as I did four years ago. Thank you to the organisers for inviting me to compete and I promise to come back next time. Thank you to the whole city...they came out in their numbers to cheer us on," the 2020 Valencia Ibercaja 10km champion said.
Although he defeated the 2018 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix 3000m champion, Rhonex admitted his plan had been to pull away from Cheserek at the earliest instance possible.
"The earlier the better...the plan was to pull away rather than wait until the finishing bend to kick on. The weather conditions were good but the course was quite hilly and this posed a bit of a challenge," he said.
It was equally a close race in the women's half marathon where the 2008 world cross country junior silver medalist, Irene Cheptai clocked 1:07:37 to finish second behind Ethiopian Senbere Teferi who timed 1:07:35.
Norwegian Karoline Bjerkeli finished third in 1:08:07.
The 2015 world 5000m silver medalist lauded Cheptai for being a worthy competitor she was unable to shake off.
"At first, we had spoken and decided we would run together. At some point, I tried to drop her but it wasn't easy so we continued to run together. There were more hilly points and so I decided to leave it to the finishing kick," Teferi said.
Meanwhile, at the Lille Half Marathon, the 2020 Valencia Half Marathon champion Kibiwott Kandie clocked 59:37 to place second, behind Ugandan Andrew Kwemoi (59:37) and another Kenyan, Roncer Kiprotich, came a close third in 59:38.
In the same event, fresh from her win in the women's 10,000m at the third leg of Athletics Kenya track and field weekend meeting, Purity Komen timed 1:07:10 in second as Ethiopian Zenebu Fikadu took the top honour in 1:06:57. Fellow countrywoman, Betty Chepkemoi, finished third in 1:08:00.
In the New Taipei City Marathon, it was a clean podium sweep for Kenya ad Felix Kimutai (2:18:24) cut the tape ahead of Stephen Chebogut (2:21:08) and Justus Kangogo (2:21:12).