A defending champion was overthrown in the men's competition at the Baltimore Marathon on Saturday, and a new event record was set in the women's.
Alphonce Yatich of Kenya took first place overall in the marathon with a time of 2 hours, 14 minutes, 4 seconds - the second-best time in the race's history.
Yatich, 25, and Julius Keter - the Kenyan who set the event record last year in 2:11:56 - ran together until about Mile 20, when Yatich took the lead. Keter subsequently dropped out of the race.
Iulia Arkhipova of Kyrgyzstan won the women's marathon with a time of 2:32:09, which broke the event record of 2:35:45 set in 2006 by Rima Dubovik. Arkhipova also beat her personal best of 2:34:10, set in the Frankfurt Marathon in 2007.
The Baltimore Running Festival attracted an event-record 20,346 preregistered runners, and Yatich and Arkhipova each took home $18,000 for finishing first in the marathon.
"I felt great," Yatich said through a translator. "The win took me by surprise because I didn't know if I'd be able to keep up my pace. At the beginning of the race, the weather conditions were good, but I think I would have done much better if it hadn't started to rain."
Yatich joined Keter, 20, in the lead around Mile 3, and the two ran together for most of the race. Peter Kemboi, also of Kenya, made up a large distance in Mile 5 and joined the two leaders but quickly fell back between miles 6 and 7 and was never able to match pace with them again.
Yatich first took the lead over Keter by just a few paces at Mile 12, but the pair was running in tandem again at the halfway point of the marathon with a time of 1:05:15. At that point, it was either runner's race to win, and they were on pace to beat last year's record time.
At Mile 18, Isaac Macharia and Elijah Nyabuti, both of Kenya, were running third and fourth, respectively, only 23 seconds behind Yatich and Keter. Runners were battling hills and head winds but maintained a consistent pace.
Yatich ran his fastest pace (4:33) in the 20th mile and was able to gain a 15-second lead over Keter. Long strides kept Yatich in first, and despite the 21st mile being his slowest (6:05), he had left Keter behind for good. Yatich ran the final five miles as the leader, with his closest competitor more than a minute behind.
Macharia finished second in 2:15:53 and won $10,000, followed by Nyabuti ($6,500), Joseph Chirlee of Kenya ($4,000) and Samuel Ndereba, also of Kenya ($3,000).
Arkhipova's record time was well ahead of Tatiana Pushkareva of Russia (2:35:45) and Natalia Sokolova, also of Russia (2:37:50). Maria Portilla of Peru, last year's women's winner, came in fourth with a time of 2:40:32. Albina Gallyamova of Russia finished fifth in 2:41:22.
Arkhipova, 25, participated in the Olympic Games in Beijing in July 2008 and placed 58th with a marathon time of 2:44:41. She placed second in the Nashville Marathon in April 2008, but this was her first win.
"I am very happy and very surprised," Arkhipova, said through a translator about breaking the event record in her first Baltimore Marathon. "The course is not easy because there are a lot of hills and there were strong winds."
Note: : A 23-year-old male runner collapsed during the marathon and later died, the second death during the marathon's nine years, event organizers and officials said. The runner's name was not released.
