•Kenya’s Kirui takes gold in new Championship record

Today
Women Marathon 12:45 SS5

Dieudonne Disi went from a possible surprise package to one of the dropouts in yesterday’s 42.195km marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany.

The country’s long distance ace caused a temporary stir when he stayed with the leading pack of the race before suddenly going off the track.

In the opening 10km, the 29-year-old was cruising in second place behind Ethiopia’s Deriba Merga.

He dropped to 9th after 15km but rose back into fourth place after the 20km mark.

Disi slipped back to fifth on the half way mark before shockingly dropping out.

It is believed that Disi failed to cope with the high pace that his fellow athletes started with.

Kenya’s Abel Kirui secured gold in a championship-record time of two hours six minutes and 55 seconds after a blistering first half around the city.

Emmanuel Mutai took silver, 54 seconds back, to give Kenya a 1-2 finish while Olympic bronze-medallist Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia again took third place, 1:41 off Kirui’s pace.

After his win, Kirui said, "I have had three good races in Berlin in the past but I never thought that I would become a world champion today.”

It was a rude welcome for Disi, who was making his maiden full marathon debut on the world stage after switching from his specialty 10,000m at the end of last year’s Beijing Olympic Games.

Focus now turns to Epiphanie Nyirabarame, who hoists Rwanda’s flag in today’s women marathon.

Nyirabarame is eager to shake off her dismal display at last year’s Beijing Olympic Games where she finished 66th.

Ends