TOKYO — Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir produced a dramatic, lung-busting final 100m sprint to outpace Ethiopa’s Tigst Assefa for gold in the women’s marathon at the world championships in Tokyo on Sunday.
The pair were neck-and-neck coming into the National Stadium after 41km run around the streets of Tokyo, the pace acclerating all the time.
Jepchirchir, grimacing, tried to pull away, but former world record holder Assefa bolted down the back straight.
Then, come the home straight, somehow the 31-year-old Kenyan found enough resources to battle back past her stuttering Ethiopian rival for a breathless gold.
Jepchirchir, Olympic champion at the same venue in the Covid-delayed 2021 Olympics, timed 2hr 24min 43sec for victory, edging Assefa, a two-time winner of the Berlin Marathon who won London earlier this year with a world-leading 2:15:50, by just two seconds.
“I am so happy with what I have done in Tokyo,” beamed Jepchirchir. “It was so hot, so difficult, but I managed it. It was not easy.
“When I entered the stadium, I got a lot of energy from the fans. I really did not expect to win. It was not my ultimate plan to sprint in the final metres, but when I saw I was 100m from the finish, I just started to kick. I found some hidden energy there.”
‘Be positive’
Jepchirchir added: “Despite running a lot of marathons in my career, I am so grateful for this one because I was not expecting the victory.
“This is my first championships and I feel grateful that it happened in Tokyo because I won my first marathon gold medal in Japan at the Olympics.
“This one was tougher. The humidity was so high and I did not know it would be so hot. I still have a long way to go. I will work extra hard. This makes me believe myself more and more.”
For Assefa, there was an element of deja vu, having been edged agonisingly into silver at last year’s Paris Olympics by Dutch runner Sifan Hassan.
Hassan has opted out of these worlds, having run the Sydney Marathon as she seeks to focus on the World Marathon Majors.
“I’m just happy I finished the race with the silver medal,” said Assefa.
“When I took the lead with Jepchirchir I guessed that it would be all about a sprint in the last 100m.
“It was the same at the Paris Olympics when I also finished second and lost to Sifan.
“But I don’t like to think I lost gold. I always try to be positive and think that I won the silver.”
American Susanna Sullivan had made the early running in the marathon, but was dropped at the 30km mark.
From that point on it became a duel between Assefa and Jepchirchir, with Magdalyne Masai and Uganda’s Stella Chesang battling it out for third.
The latter pair also fell by the wayside, Uruguay’s Julia Paternain instead rounding out the podium in 2:27:23.
It was a shock bronze for the Mexico-born Paternain, whose hometown is Cambridge, England, and who only switched allegiance from Britain to Uruguay in January.
