Patrick Makau rips Berlin & Marathon World Record too

After making his intent known last year at the Berlin Marathon, Patrick Makau came back yesterday and obliterated the field which included more fancied Haile Gebreselassie , smashing the world record in the process by a whole 21 seconds( finishing at 2hr 03 min 38secs).


We applaud his exploits and this shows the pedigree that Kenya has on the longest athletic event. Being one of the events on the World Marathon Majors (WMM), it will be even better if one of the Kenyans were to emulate last year's winner the late Samuel Wanjiru - fitting tribute to this great runner whose career was cut short earlier this year.
The current ranking for the WMM has Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai leading the pack with 55 points amassed from his win at Boston Marathon and 2nd place in last year's Berlin Marathon ( and also led Kenya at the IAAF World Cross-Country championships and won the Bogota Half-Marathon). There are 6 other Kenyans in the top 10 but the title for WMM Marathoner of the Year is clearly between Mutai and Makau.

NOTES:
While we applauded the winning of the race by the Kenyans in Berlin, it has become the norm for media-houses and print media to start shouting the prize money that the individuals shall collect. It is all good an informative but let's not shine too much spotlight on such trappings. We all know what happened with the Samuel Wanjiru. These sport personalities now become the focus of unwanted attention and fraudsters to boot.

Haile Gebreselassie's loss also shows the toll the road races usually have on many an athlete. It will be imperative for the authorities at Athletics Kenya to manage our talents to ensure that if we're to have track and road specialists; each sticks to their specialisation. Road-running is known to wreck havoc on the knees and ankles. Ask Paul Tergat, Charles Kamathi and now Haile Gebreselassie.

All the same, let's celebrate the win one more time!