Brigid Kosgei clinches Lisbon half marathon title, misses 22M bonus
17th March 2024
More than 30,000 runners took part in this year’s edition.
- Kosgei finished the race more than four minutes ahead of the second-place finisher.
- She was followed by Ethiopia’s Bosena Mulatie, who crossed the finishing line in a time of 1:09.00.
- Ethiopia’s Dinkalem Ayele won the men’s category.
- One Kenyan runner did not finish the race due to unexplained reasons.
One-time Olympic Games silver medalist Brigid Kosgei won the
2024 Lisbon Half Marathon title on Sunday evening in impressive fashion.
Kosgei was in a class of her own in the streets of the Portuguese capital, running the bigger part of the race alone.
She turned on the screw with a few kilometres remaining and went on to cross the finishing line in a time of 1:05.51, one minute and 33 seconds slower than her lifetime best of 1:04.28 which she set in 2019.
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However, the mother of two missed the mouth-watering €150,000
(approximately Ksh 22,000,000) world record bonus that the organizers had set
aside in the process since her time was slow compared to the current world
record of 1:02.52 set by Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey three years ago
in Spain.
Kosgei was followed by Ethiopia’s Bosena Mulatie, who
crossed the finishing line in a time of 1:09.00 while Tigist Menigstu stopped
her stopwatch 14 seconds after her compatriot Mulatie had finished the race to
settle for the third position.
The Kenyan duo of Betty Chepkemoi Kibet and Vivian Melly
registered fourth and fifth positions in 1:09.35 and 1:09.41 respectively.
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In the men’s category, Ethiopia’s Dinkalem Ayele overcame a
star-studded field to bag the title at the 33rd edition of the road race.
He was too strong for Kenya’s Dominic Kiptarus at the
decisive moment and went on to break the tape in 1:00.36.
On the other hand, Kiptarus crossed the finishing line 3
seconds behind Ayele with German runner Amanal Petros completing the
podium-places positions.
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Similar to the women’s category, the fourth and fifth positions
went to Kenyan runners. Dennis Kibet Kitiyo clocked 1:00.57 to overcome a
spirited fight from Bravin Kipkogei Kiptoo, who crossed the finishing line in 1:01.08.
Sadly, Kenyan runner Brian Kwemoi did not finish the race
with the same applying to Kenyan-born United States athlete Leonard Korir.
More than 30,000 athletes, including 10,000 none Portuguese competitors took part in Sunday’s road race.
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