Edna Kiplagat makes history in women's marathon

Kenya's Edna Kiplagat became the first woman to retain the marathon world title when she eased home on Saturday to earn the first gold medal on the opening day of the world athletics championships.

The 33-year-old - only 20th in the Olympics last year - timed 2hr 25min 44sec to take gold ahead of long-time leader Valeria Straneo of Italy (2:25:58) while Japan's Kayoko Fukushi took bronze (2:27:45). read more: www.nation.co.ke/sports

image source: www.iaaf.org

KIPLAGAT MAKES HISTORY WITH BACK-TO-BACK WINS
"Defending is hard... If you're running for the first time, no one knows who you are but going to defend, everybody is going to look at you." So said Kenya’s Edna Kiplagat before arriving in Moscow...

Trailing the early leaders by almost half a minute through the first 10km, many were questioning whether a title defence was possible, although she had finished as the runner-up in April for the second successive year in the top-quality London Marathon race and there were no physical questions that needed answering.
 read more: www.iaaf.org/competitions