(30/01/2007)

Kenyan John Kelai restore hope to his team Gowar after he won the third leg of the Standard Chartered's ‘Greatest Race on Earth’ (GROE) 2006/07 series, the Mumbai Marathon.

Standard Chartered Greatest Race on Earth (GROE) athlete Yang Feng Xia also won the women’s marathon race.

Their victories will give hope to their teams in this unique marathon relay series, as Kelai’s team Team Gowar and Yang’s Team China were only 16th and 4th in their respective competitions going into this third leg.

Kelai’s winning time of 2:12:27 improved Team Gowar’s position in the Main Team Challenge by an astonishing ten places, leaving them now in sixth and just one place below a prize-winning spot.

Kelai, from Kenya, beat off strong competition from pre-race favourite Melese Asfaw Gashaw who was running for team Akaki. The Ethiopian finished just five seconds behind Kelai and in doing so elevated his team four places to 3rd place overall.

Still leading the race for the first place prize of US$400,000 is Marathon Centre Kericho, after Robert Kipyego clocked 2:14:59.

They are now just 44 seconds ahead of Kericho in overall second place, for whom last year’s Mumbai Marathon winner Stanley Leleito and current course record holder ran a time of 2:14:22.    

A mere 18 years old, and having run just two marathons in the past, both in her homeland China, Yang entered the marathon as a relative unknown.

Her winning time of 2:36:16 placed her ahead of the likes of distance running legend Tegla Loroupe and race favourite Leila Amman, and reduces the gap to the third-placed team in the Women’s Team Challenge, Grazy Girls, from 28 to 19 minutes.

Yang said: "I just felt really strong and when I caught the leaders up at 38 kilometres, I knew I was going to win.

"Our team position after the second marathon in Singapore wasn’t as good as we’d expected so the pressure was on me to produce a good performance, and that kept me going."

Loroupe clocked 2:42:52 to push her team Run for Peace up one place to second, whilst Cyclone remain first nearly 18 minutes ahead of the chasing pack after a 2:38:13 run by Jennifer Chesinon.

GROE is a team relay of four challenging marathons in Nairobi, Singapore, Mumbai and Hong Kong. It has the largest prize pool of any event in world athletics, of US$1.5 million.

The 2006/07 GROE Series sees participation from over 30 countries, the focus of which is the Nations Challenge. This looks set for an exciting finale in the last leg in Hong Kong, with the top three teams just four minutes apart.

Now leading the race for the coveted Gold Baton trophy and the US$50,000 top prize are reigning champions Kenya. A spirited run of 2:15:08 by their runner Vincent Kiplagat Kiptoo puts them ahead of Zimbabwe in second and previous leaders Uganda .

There are also six regional competitions within the Nations Challenge. With just one more leg remaining, Sri Lanka have overtaken India in the South Asia section, with Asela Bandara running 2:23:13 to overcome home favourite Nathuram by a margin of five minutes.

As leader of the overall Nations Challenge, Kenya of course head the Africa section. Indonesia have extended their lead over Thailand to more than 16 minutes in South East Asia, whilst South Korea have cut Taiwan’s advantage to 13 minutes in North East Asia.

In Europe & Oceania, Australia are still in front but have seen their lead over Denmark more than halved to five minutes, and in the Americas Argentina have cut the deficit to Mexico to under 20 minutes.

The field of elite athletes and emerging talent sped away from the start-line at 7.40am from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, a World Heritage Site, all taking on Mumbai’s heat. In another increase on last year’s turn-out, it was estimated that over 27,000 runners participated in the event.

Greatest Race on Earth Results (provisional) – Leg 3: Mumbai Marathon 

Main Team Challenge (open to all teams)

Women’s Challenge (open to all-women teams)

Nations Challenge (Open to National Associations only)

Nations Challenge – Regions

Gold Baton

Defending champions Kenya will be one of 30 teams competing in the Nations Challenge, with Mexico, Argentina, Tanzania and Sri Lanka all making their GROE debuts. 

As well as the first prize for the overall Nations Challenge, there is prize money on offer for the first three placed teams in each of seven regions.

A new and unique incentive has been introduced this year, as Nations Challenge teams will also be vying to bring home the GROE Gold Baton – a 9 carat, 300 gram, solid gold relay baton that has been specially commissioned for the Race. 

The baton will be presented to the winning team after the final leg of the GROE in Hong Kong on 4 March 2007.

Mike DeNoma, Group Executive Director of Standard Chartered, led by example in 2005/06 by completing all four GROE marathons.

He said: "Standard Chartered is proud to introduce the GROE Gold Baton for the 2006/07 Nations Challenge.

"The Gold Baton is a symbol of the teamwork required to win the race and a reflection of the high standards that GROE runners set in each marathon."

"GROE has now become a World Cup of Marathons with over 30 competing nations. The competition attracts high quality international athletes and, through teamwork, gives the opportunity for young talent to develop crucial race experience," he added.

Special awards

Standard Chartered has also introduced awards to recognise special achievements.

Amongst these is a US$15,000 award for the team who improves most on their 2005/06 cumulative time, and a US$20,000 pool to recognise those teams that overcome obstacles to complete the series.

The Greatest Race on Earth (GROE) was created in 2004 – the first-ever virtual relay race across four marathons.

The Main Team Challenge category is open to men and women over 18 years of age, of any nationality, with no restriction on the level of competence.

Each team member will run in one marathon. Teams must nominate who will run in each full marathon before the start of the series, and the winning team will be the one whose athletes record the lowest aggregate time across the four marathons.