Kiprotich finishes fifth at New York Marathon

By Norman Katende

2014 TCS NYC Marathon Elite men

Wilson Kipsang (KEN) 2:10.59

Lelisa Desisa Benti (ETH) 2:11.06

Gebre Gebremariam (ETH) 2:12.13

Meb Keflezighi (USA) 2:13.18

Stephen Kiprotich (UGA) 2:13:25

OLYMPIC and World marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich improved on his performance in the New York Marathon, but could not hit his double target of a podium finish and setting a new national record.

Sunday’s race was won by Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang, who beat Ethiopian Lelisa Desisa in a sprint finish with about 300m to go to win the race and also the World Majors, which comes with a cash prize of $500,000.

Kiprotich beat Kipsang at the London 2012 Olympic Games and though he has performed well in championship events, he is yet to get to grips with World Majors where there is plenty of pressure and planning.

Gebre Gebremariam also from Ethiopia finished third with USA’s Meb Keflezighi celebrating his fourth place finish in a race run in a cold and windy weather.

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Kenya's Wilson Kipsang produced a powerful finish to claim the win in less than ideal weather conditions. AFP Photo

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In a press conference prior to the race, Kiprotich had said that his dream was to finish at the podium and also added that though Ugandans wanted him to win, he would try to keep with the front runners.

And he kept at it for 30KMs of the race, keeping in the front pack that had over 10 runners, even coming close to taking the lead.

However, when Kipsang and Desisa decided to break off, Kiprotich could not hang on.

Keeping within the top eight for the final three kilometres, he overtook some runners to come home in fifth position in a time of 2 hours 13 minutes and 25 seconds in what was a relatively slow race.