Apart from being the first event in the 13th IAAF World Championships, the woman’s marathon was full of other statistical firsts thanks to the strength of Edna Kiplagat and her Kenyan Colleagues:
It is the first time any nation has taken first and second on the podium and therefore also the first time that a country has had a clean sweep of the the podium in the marathon, men or women, at the World Championship. Japan were the closest to achieving that feat in 1993 when they took gold and bronze.
In the men’s marathon the spanish in 1997 and the Kenyans in2009 won first and second, but again no country has earned a clean sweep Although Kiplagat’s 16:11 between 35k and 40k was fast, Catherine Ndereba ran 15:58 for the same distance split in 2003 in Paris, but Kiplagat has the greatest difference in first to second half times (a negative split) of 4 minutes 14 seconds
The Kenyans doubled their marathon medals haul today. Catherine Ndereba had previously won three medals and in Daegu they have added another three, plus the World Cup for being first team.