Top five

Stephen Kiprotich 2:09:51 (Uga)Lelisa Desisa 2:10:12 (Eth)Tatese Tola 2:10:23 (Eth)Tsegay Kebede 2:10:47 (Eth)Kentaro Nakamoto 2:10:50 (Jap)

For Rwanda it was the same old story of returning home empty-handed from the IAAF World Athletics Champions, while Uganda celebrate after winning gold in the men’s marathon on Saturday.

Whereas Jean Pierre Mvuyekure didn’t even finish the race, Uganda’s Stephen Kiprotich added the world title to his Olympic gold he won at the 2012 London Games.

Kiprotich showed the Olympic gold was not just a one-off by breaking Kenya’s stranglehold on the men’s marathon at the world championships with victory in 2:9:51.

The Uganda was a surprise winner at last year’s London Games but arrived in Moscow as one of the favourites, and went on become the first non-Kenyan to win the world title since 2005.

Ethiopia’s Lelisa Desisa was second 21 seconds behind in 2:10:12 and his compatriot Tadese Tola took bronze, a further 11 seconds back.

But it was yet another world championships to remember for Rwanda as Mvuyekure, who going into the race, had vowed to leave a mark in Moscow but failed to finish, pulling out with six kilometers left.

Rwanda’s started fairly well. At the 5km mark he was t 32nd, after 10km he fell six places behind to 38th, at the 15km point he moved up to 35th, after 20km he fell to 37th and the halfway mark, Mvuyekure was 34th. 

After 25km, the Rwandan runner was occupying 31st position and by the time he pulled out of the race with what appeared to be a hamstring injury on the 35km mark, he had dropped to 39th position.

Altogether, it was a miserable outing for Rwanda as the country’s two representatives, including Robert Kajuga in the men’s 10,000 meters final, couldn’t even finish their respective races, let alone challenging for higher positions.