Men's Marathon | World Athletics Championships Beijing 2015

welcome to beijing for the 15th edition of the iwaf world athletics championships what a superb nine days we have in prospect and it all kickstarts right now in the beautiful early morning sunshine with a men's marathon and what a race this could be the current world record holder the former world record holder against the defending champion and the olympic champion two kenyans up against stephen kipertich the toast of uganda when he took the olympic title and we have a host of other athletes who in these tough conditions may feel this is an opportunity to get in the mix i'm rob walker and i'm joined by steve ovet and we cannot wait for this race to start dennis cameto with that electrifying world record when he won in berlin 202 57 abel karui's had a couple of victories here wonderful major championship performer now we get a better glimpse of the course it's a point to point as steve was saying past the five kilometer stage heading up towards the daya sutu state guest house and then that long road north past the kunu river that's getting up towards the halfway stage they then take a right-hand turn past hadean park a little double back and i wonder at what stage the leading contenders will make their break for glory you sense perhaps that won't happen until quite close towards the end in these conditions and bit by bit they make their way back towards this magnificent olympic park which still in many regards looks as good as it did back in 2008 when the eyes of the world descended on beijing and the birds nest stadium so a full look at the lineup edwin kemboi representing austria born in kenya there are a few kenyans representing other nations germaik every selassie is an interesting athlete still only 19 years of age came sixth in chicago seventh in the world half last year lisa de cesa of ethiopia he picked up the silver medal two years ago great performance from him yamanei segate one of the other ethiopians only just mr bronze five years six years ago in berlin and there's kimeto and kipsang one world record holder one former world record holder and their compatriot mark career had a brilliant run in paris earlier this year sub 206. well that's a massively strong canyon continues to see whether they run as a team or whether they just wait and see what the other athletes are doing whether the other ethiopians or any other teams can put a performance here but it's going to break that trio up because that's the main contenders i think for the finish very good quartet from uganda abraham kapimo bronze medalist in the commonwealth games and stephen kipratic of course the big performer on the main stage cuthbert nysango hasn't done anything this season the athlete from zimbabwe but he's a good performer on his day seventh in the olympics in london and 16th back in 2011 in daegu hanu lemi won dubai earlier this year 205 28. yeah he wins most of his races actually he's one to look forward to a young athlete so this field is really quite interesting because he's got the experience and also the young contenders coming through so i think we'll have to wait maybe for the halfway point as you said before anything's developed really rob but a quality feel nonetheless it really is it is this confirmation of lemmy's time only 20 years of age amazing we've just been talking about gabriel selassie the eritrean at 19. it's amazing that these athletes are coming through with such stamina at such a young age there's deceisa who picked up the silver two years ago very experienced performer won boston earlier this year he's the sixth fastest athlete in the world this year vessel just beside him there he was the uh silver medal in the uh world team half marathon back in 2010 so as i say almost every athlete here in this front row is a contender and there's wilson kipsang wearing kipratic former world record holder what a list of accolades double london winner double frankfurt winner he's won new york he's the third fastest athlete in history and he's the second fastest athlete in the world this year only eliot kipchoge has gone quicker that was when he beat him in the london marathon back in april great day for sian guan one of the chinese competitors he's joined by hassi muhan they've got respective bests of 2 16 24 and 2 14 26 both personal bests set this season on route to booking their place in their national team on home territory so a massive day for them and hopefully as the morning progresses they'll be getting roared on by a growing crowd saturday morning no one's in work today well hopefully most of the city anyway and they'll be out on the streets of beijing ready to cheer these athletes on what a race in prospect we have nine scintillating days for you here in beijing and it all starts right here right now with a stellar men's marathon athletes now nervous moments just before the start of a major race officials just clearing now away from the start gate i always wonder why they have to put their feet just behind the line when they've got over 42k to go but that's the official stance on these things and as rob said we've got the marathon this morning to start the proceedings today and then the fantastic ten thousand meters on the track to finish today so what a great day to start these world championships the last few seconds as steve said must be agony they'll be desperate to get going we've only been here for four days and we've been desperate for the world championships to start there's that fantastic real record two hours 257 i don't think we're gonna get anything like that today but it's going to be a tough race and at last the 2015 iwaf world athletics championships are underway couple of fallers there towards the back of the field the beginning of a long tough journey it's already warm local time just gone 7 30 in the morning whoever takes the first gold medal of these championships will really have to earn it the hard way you can see the kenya's now moving to the front there come here to keep saying just moving ahead of the field just easing their way through i think the nervous tension best before the start gives a little bit of a push i suppose to get your legs moving fast straight away as the gun goes but to their reason to their rhythm and i think the other athletes are quite happy really to see the favorites out in front just to key off them i think more than anything else well interesting to think back to sami wanjiru the late tragically the late sammy one giroo who produced a sparkling sub 207 performance in not two dissimilar conditions to this to take the olympic title back in 2008 and i wonder whether any of these three kenyans will be feeling bold enough and brave enough to go for a pace such as that when it is pretty stifling already that's mark career i watched him win in paris earlier this year inside 206. that was his lifetime best he's not as well known as the other two kenyans but certainly he'll be feeling pretty confident and he's more than earned his place in the kenyan lineup for these championships as a result of that superb win in the french capital back in april brazilians just making their presence felt at the front of the field we've got solonai da silva who was sixth in milan gilberto and ed milson santana and we did have wilson kipsang and dennis cameto at the front they're quite happy to let the likes of santana just do the pacemaking just a quick footnote here bat ochia who you can just see in the back of sean i was just reading his stats yesterday he's in good form he's run 44 major marathons he was sterling for koka in december ferdinotsu so he's well used to performing in japan which means he's comfortable in tough conditions now he's only got a i say only in comparison to the likes of kimeto with a 57 pato cheer has a lifetime best of 208.50 but it's not completely beyond the bounds of possibility that an athlete like him could get in amongst the mix if he does have a particular strength yeah competing and thriving in tough conditions and there he is just in the middle of the shot there representing mongolia i think that's a good point i think the in essence what we're looking at here is not going to be anywhere near the world record but it'd be a time round about the i think we're at about the 2827 or the mark and if that's the case and a lot of these athletes can perform at that level it's whether they can perform at that level in these conditions which is the significant factor i think that's gonna be bearing on this race over the last half quick glimpse of jeffrey eggleston he's got a best of just inside 211 he was just disappearing off shot there some magnificent sights to be taken in on this course perhaps those competing in the mass participation side of this event will have more time to enjoy the surroundings a long long lead up there and they're coming towards the temple of heaven there which is another major tourist attraction in beijing athletes just echeloning their way around this tight left hand bend now steve here's a question for you we've got the uh the mass participation race with the yellow t-shirts and i think that's who we've got at the front there maybe just having a little bold bid for glory for his uh 45 seconds of television coverage and it did look as though the kenyans were beginning to close him down there but uh quite interesting to see one or two of those taking part in the masses there he is three seven six two we don't have a full biography on him just yet but we'll try and find something out if he's there at 25 miles steve ovec rather thinks he may have had his moments of glory by the time the birdsnest stadium veers into sight you never know if he's there at the finish we could have a new superstar in our making but i don't think so he's doing a good job that he's pacemaking for the first one is it maybe a kilometer of the marathon do you think he's trying to run a one-mile pb well there's the temple of heaven as i said magnificent uh scenery is the on this course today and that's just literally about a k or so up the road from the start well our volunteer pacemaker is still going strong as i said it looks like a fairly cautious start from most of these athletes i'm not surprised as i said the temperatures will be even creeping up from that 30 degrees or so that we had at the start and as they go into the city itself it's been pretty warm for the last four or five days so there's no no relent from this heat overnight so the tarmac and the city itself acts like a major almost radiator radiating the heat back on these athletes you can see a little bit of shade there as you go around some areas but to be honest it's almost open all the way through the marathon i just got a glimpse there of adam karmis another one of the expatriated east africans he was chasing down our volunteer pacemaker now representing bahrain he's gone inside 208 and he was the man just behind our yellow t-shirt leader there's where he should be running in amongst the master it's a good idea actually this time to to incorporate a mass race behind the um the marathon itself which is uh it's good keeps the uh the interest from the locals and obviously they will not be finishing in the olympic stadium itself they will be diverted to another finishing area but having said that you can just see behind them though there's a thousands of athletes actually taking part [Music] well we're very much enjoying this race steve evette and myself rob walker and you'll be hearing quite a bit from a commentator alongside me very much looking forward to this and the rest of the track and field action over the nine days we have ahead of us here in beijing so it's good morning to peter matthews well good morning gentlemen um while you're concentrating on the race just one little um one little comment that i um have one trying to look at the stats and so on and the um times that are coming through as well and um there's one non-starter and the one non-starter is fairly significant because he's a gentleman who's going to be competing for the southern sudan which is one of the new members of the iaf uh because they've now got 207 nations 214 nations rather around the world so he is not competing unfortunately that would have been a debut for that country that's a real shame although we will see another country having their debut at this edition of the world championships kosovo will be represented i think they have a competitor in the preliminary round of the men's hundred meters which is coming up later on this morning here in the bird's nest stadium and still three seven six two is piling on the pressure at the front steve ovech shaking his head alongside me incredulous that the uh the athlete from the mass participation race is still there at the front going strong well maybe this is a good idea maybe the organizers have put in one of their top marathon runners in disguise to take the pace for the first half of the race we never know really um as i said with not much statistics on this guy but he seems to be looking quite a decent run-up and there was a first glimpse of the defending champion the reigning olympic champion stephen kipratic the ugandan only uganda's second olympic champion after the legendary 400 meter hurdler john akibuyi back in 1972 kipratic was the toast of the east african nation and he proved himself a worthy champion with a fantastic victory over deceisa in the closing stages two years ago in moscow and he set a lifetime best in tokyo earlier this year 206.33 so the ugandan as we look at batoche kipritich right up in that top group and what odds on him regaining his world title well you're right about battle cheer he looks quite comfortable isn't he in these conditions he's running well he's not actually hiding behind the rest of the athletes he's out in front there and uh well you just see how fast these athletes are actually going because at the moment at the moment it looks as if the pace is fairly casual but even by most standards it's pretty quick but don't these kind of races really spark interest steve because it does give athletes for perhaps like bat or cheer who aren't necessarily the quickest it gives them an opportunity to really take a major medal where in in reality on a 205 206 he just can't compete at that level well i think there's two types of athletes out there there's the championship athlete and that goes not just in the marathon races but in the the distance races on the middle distance direction on the track the athletes that like the competition that like be able to have the man-to-man situation or there's the the the single race athlete the athlete that likes the pace taken for them all the way through as they are in most of the marathon races around the around the world berlin obviously in particular where the pace is fast all the way and some athletes can cope with that others can't so in this particular situation obviously we've got a major race here where the pace isn't going to be significant for the first half so it may suit a lot more athletes than it would do in a major city race put it that way well major championship marathons have a dynamic all of their own as steve was saying it's not about the times it's about the gold silver and bronze well you can see nothing has really happened to the athletes so far they spread across the road it's a massive road isn't it here as they lead up almost to i suppose around about the three or four k mark looking very relaxed are the kenyans they're in the red to the left of the picture they look like they're virtually jogging miucci and patil two italians mayucci has a pb of two eleven oh eight patio has gone under 210 on one occasion 209 53 and it shows you what the pace here because the two italians are at the front and the kenyans are all at a dordle at this current pace but there's a long way to go and it's going to get much much hotter before we get towards the business end of this race well patil as you said he's about a 214 man he was 15 to the olympics so that's a sort of that's the sort of time that these guys like to run at and that's the sort of reason why most these athletes are together at the moment beautiful roads to run on flat as a pancake here surrounded by mountains beijing really but the actual course itself i don't think raises more than 10 or 15 meters or so throughout the whole of the 42k well i've got a feeling this guy as you said it's actually been put in by the organizers because he looks like a reasonable runner the fun runner as it was in the yellow and i think he's going to do as best as he can to take these athletes through as far as he can roman proteus moldova 212 31 yeah proteus didn't finish in the olympics in 2012 but he's uh he's got the best time around about 212 again that's uh maybe a little bit out of the wrecking when it comes to the last half if they push it on remember most of the kenyans can run a negative split here they did that even when it's at the world record pace and if you that's that's the hard way running a marathon isn't it you run the first half reasonably relaxed and then you really kick it in and that really does the damage in most races significant damage and that can happen obviously i think here today the forbidden city anyone who's ever had the privilege of visiting china and taking a tour here it really is a wonder to behold and it looks magnificent in the early morning sunshine here it's it's a vast vast city beijing isn't it it kind of takes your breath away the scale well i think there's 27 million in terms of population that's almost half the population of great britain if one city yeah well i think it's it's almost one and a half times the population of australia in one city so that just goes to show you the size and scale of what we're dealing with here it's okay just moving ahead there ethiopia and moving to that almost in echelon behind this pacemaker at the moment i think he's slowing down a little bit they won't i don't think tolerate this too much they'll start moving around but they're quite comfortable it's nice to have someone just taking the lead shows you the pace very very comfortable hardly any of these athletes have become detached and these early stages i think everyone respecting the context and the conditions and this is what awaits you if you do come and take a tour of the forbidden city [Music] absolutely spectacular been there and it's the sort of thing that to anybody that comes to beijing has got to go and see it's just the size of it i think that is awe-inspiring it really is [Music] it is one of the must-do tourist attractions one of many here in this great city so yamanei segate just missed out on a medal back in berlin by seven seconds finished behind sega cabernet a brilliant major championship performer diminutive ethiopian took the bronze here behind sami wanjiru back in 2008. so there is segate won the rotterdam marathon in 2012. well that's the national centre of performing arts there another one of the most things that i've been amazed at in beijing is spectacular architecture that you just have around every corner even the actual main airport we flew into spectacular design and uh it's really something quite special really surprising for me anyway as is this stadium still looking as good today as it did back in 2008 jackson kiprop there won the mumbai marathon two years ago i made a note of him beforehand because he clearly likes the hot sticky conditions if he can win in india and athlete we saw just at the beginning of that pan across the front row who we haven't spoken about too much so far shumija chassa represented uh as we look at kiprop and stephen kipritich there just on the left formerly ethiopian until 2013 fourth in tokyo second in seoul so another athlete who's quite comfortable in the tough humid conditions and it will surely be someone who has shown some ability in really really difficult circumstances who might give themselves a big opportunity here sega battle cheer still flying the flag for mongolia and there is the chatter 5k mark reached in 1606 so on pace they're probably running around about the 215 mark i think something like that yeah and it's starting to stretch out too you can see now that uh they're not in that tight pack and you can look at the conditions i think just look at the the reflection off of the road here temperatures obviously as i said before in the 30s and it's starting to have some little effect on most of the athletes just the beginnings of an increase in pace there from to chatter with sega batoche is also there and mark career just bridging the little gap that was beginning to develop between those lead three and the pack and career in fourth place the kenyan just taking a little look over his shoulder now they're all taking advantage of the feeding stations early on i'm not surprised it's going to be a big factor taking on the ward up in this race in these conditions you'd have to be crazy to miss out a drink station in weather like this yeah well though i mean if you run marathons and uh it's it's a known fact you've got to take water on early as possible because if you start trying to find the water later in the race when you're really thirsty the danger is already there and the damage has been done chachata's just slowly sipping his water ahead of the field and sharing them around between teammates yeah you have to see very difficult sometimes obviously to pick up the water but there's the time at the 5k mark the chats are coming through there and the gaps between a second or so so it's not really much at the moment but you get a feeling that they're starting to string out yes one by one they will begin to fall off the back but very very comfortable very sensible pace 215 at the early stages all of the men in this league group or most of them would be pretty comfortable at that kind of pace but these conditions will start to produce casualties as the race goes on you can see even the ethiopians are finding the heat here they're pouring water over their head and if they're feeding the heat then you can bet your life most of the other athletes are probably suffering a little bit more well one thing we ought to remind ourselves of here of course anyone who's ever been for a holiday or done any training on the rift valley either side of the rift valley as batoche just waves to some supporters will anyone who's been to the rift valley will realise of course kenyans and ethiopians are used to hot weather but those who operate up at the high altitude training centers in either country are not used to humid conditions the weather is very hot up at those training bases but it's a very dry heat so these conditions are less than ideal even for the east africans look at this from a batter better cheers gone ahead and it brought a flurry of clicks from the photographers there on the wagon which is just in front of the runners they've got the best position of everybody to follow this race the uh photographers around the world getting their shots of the lead and batachiro putting a bit of an effort here for that after that feeding station but the others really i think are just letting him go a little bit it's a bit cat and mouse isn't it really you just let the mouse go just far enough before it becomes a danger and then you pull them back in again at the chair though he's a good athlete as rob said he's used to these conditions maybe this is his way of deciding that you know he's going to make it hard for everybody whether they let him go whether he goes hard is another thing though isn't it well he's clearly feeling confident feeling up for it he's a prolific racer i think i said earlier he's run 44 major marathons which is a huge number to try and contest at a very high level but uh 208 50 third in fukuoka in december third in art suit so he's performed well in japan yeah they've got to be careful i mean it's early days 20 minutes into a marathon but he's a comfortable little run-up and he knows what he's doing so they'll be watching carefully won't they there's the gap only about 10 15 meters or so the others quite happy looking at each other spreading right across this massive road leading up to i think the uh the 10k mark which will be around the uh state guest house well i remember the british former world record holder steve jones still the british record holder saying that when you feel good in a marathon no matter what stage of the race it is you should go with it it might not always pay off but you should never leave yourself in any doubt if you feel good get to the front and have a go i wonder if they actually asked him whether it actually worked all the time or whether it worked 50 of the time i'm not sure we'll have to wait to see it's a brave brave tactic to go at 20 minutes but remember that magnificent women's marathon we had in moscow two years ago edna kiplicat won her second title yeah but valerie strone the italian went right to the front early on and everyone was expecting her to fade away just kept going and she almost ended up winning the race so well i think this is what they're going to do though they're just watching as much as they can um and the gap really although it looks significant from a spectator's point of view these men can literally haul that back within the space of uh what two or three minutes if they wanted to really they're just keeping their rhythm go they're just conserving as much of their energy as possible with these conditions they're not really worried too much they quite like maybe the idea of the battery taking all the pressure at the moment of being at the front of the race having all the attention on him while all the others are just focusing on just getting through the half of the race with as least energy going out of them as they possibly can but it's just interesting not necessarily for the gap he's got but for the mentality he must have coming into this race to to put himself 15 or 20 meters clear of the current world record hole the defending world champion one of the greats wilson kipsang he's not bothered about reputation taking a little look over his shoulder and yes at the moment he still does have that 20 meter lead well there is a theory and it's been i'm not sure it's been mooted very often but the case is that he's running at his naturally best optimum rhythm if he was to slow down and run with the group then he wasn't his efficiency drops so perhaps by running the way he is at the moment he's getting the best out of himself physically whereas the others are just holding back a little bit on their best performances as it were so is he doing the right thing or is he not doing the right thing i mean it's a question mark that's only gonna be answered by results in the end but having said that he's obviously made the move and even if they pull him back he's the sort of man that can stay in the pack anyway and he's clearly feeling comfortable in these conditions as he's proven with his decent performances in japan over the last couple of years mr silva of brazil just uh looking very cool in the sunshades i think they've got a little bit of shade maybe on the edge of the road here and he's hugging that as best he can good athlete to silver sixth in milan it's got a best of two eleven thirty two so that gives you an indication as to what the pace is amongst this group because it was two fifteen-ish as they came through the first 5k but he's just trying to move away isn't he from that group to try and catch up to the leader but uh you can see now they're starting to sort of stretch out a little bit the canyons now look this is a real surge as they start to make him and when they do when they start making a move there we go i think that might be kept saying coming through there when they do you can see the others are just realizing that the big danger is starting to make a move well that was fascinating steve because it was one of the kenyans perhaps it was kipsang who moved up alongside de silva and as soon as he did that one of the ethiopians barged his way through the group to follow the move so they're all aware yeah of people like batoche they're happy to let him go 20 meters 25 meters but any one of the three kenyans in this race not quite the same yeah you can see they've actually they've caught back to silver almost straight away and that the silver's moving across now maybe it's another feeding station i don't know yeah there is there just another water station coming in so they're picking up the water here about to cheer those going straight past it at the moment he's not taking on it anymore so it's a mystery well there was the silver he got pulled back pretty quickly with it to say sergey i think was just coming through there's the three ethiopians realizing the danger was a move there by i think it was kip saying yeah kip sang is up there three ethiopians sharing drinks and sharing the workload and then one of the other kenyans it's mark correa who's come up alongside wilson kip sang with the current world record holder dennis kimeto a couple of places back down the race all of the athletes there apart from bat ochia making sure that they took extra water on at the stations to chasse still up in that group as well the expatriated ethiopian now flying the flag and doing so with some success for bahrain a deceaser there obviously with his teammates just stretching out now from that water station across to the other side there really i suppose yeah that's one of the misters that they're going to run through there to get a bit of relief from this intense heat at the moment some of them took advantage of it some didn't you know checking their times just seeing what sort of pace they're running out we'll be coming up to the 10k maybe another five or so minutes as they run through the central sort of business area of the city it's now what eight o'clock in the morning so not many people out at the moment but uh probably a lot of people perhaps millions watching it on the television back home but again they're bunching up the danger of that initial slight break from the silver has been soaked up really by the favorites as they come to the four yet again yeah the three kenyans up in that group good to see the eritreans there not just kermit gabriel selassie but emmanuel messel fought him warsaw good athlete but to chassa segate kimeto kipsan korea all the big names we would expect to feature are right there and leading them at the moment on the arab championships half marathon earlier this year he won hamburg last year he's got a national record for his adopted country 206 43 207 20 this season he's good in humidity he's got great pedigree and is this an opportunity for shumi to get bahrain on the podium and show his former compatriots just what he's got but uh you're quite right steve it's bunching again and after that little stretch of the legs from the mongolian and the brazilian they are right back together as a sizable group once more interesting though bahrain has got uh well in terms of transferees it's got the two canyons and an ethiopian into chats up chemist and maboop so uh bahrain really has been represented by a very strong team here and dichato as you said could run really well i mean his fourth in tokyo this year which is a similar conditions today and he's moved to the front so obviously he's feeling quite comfortable even though it's early stages obviously we're not really at the 10k mark yet so 32k or plus to go first glimpse there of kiss reek the moroccan 40 years of age hit that milestone at the beginning of this month he's gone 210 this season 206 48 at his best so an interesting opportunity as we've said all the way through this is not this is clearly not going to be a lightning quick race and that means we could have unusual names featuring in the mix for the medals i just saw muay thai in the middle of that pack having a bit of a smile there i think he's quite happy with the pace that's going at the moment realizing that it's not going to hurt too early on and that the damage is the same will probably come i think after the halfway mark round about the 22k maybe something like that silva just easing his way to the front yet again just behind as i said batter didn't really lose much there he didn't go back through that uh pack and get ejected at the back he's just using himself again at the front i should just mention the two japanese men in this race i've just spotted fujiwara he was 14th two years ago in moscow 20906 in fukuoka just at the back end of 2014 and his compatriot masuhiro madi 17th behind his compatriot in moscow and these conditions as we've indicated will really suit the two japanese men there's the back of 419 varaki bayen he was 11th two years ago in moscow one of the three eritreans his two compatriots just slightly further up the field one of them just tucked in behind the long loping stride of mark career [Music] there is fujiwara but still to chassa pushing on the pace quite a strong looking athlete he's built more like an eight or 1500 meter runner boy yeah that's right i mean it's it's it's not against him really because i mean his body mass is a significant factor running that 42k but he looks very comfortable um and anybody that comes from ethiopia you've got to expect knows what they're doing when it comes to distance running so he's obviously just re easing himself at the front there making sure that uh bahrain gets a a look on the television to silva just behind again on the inside they're starting to spread out a little bit more now canyons though in the middle there the pack you can just see in the career just on the outside there in the red the tall long loping stride that he's got it's quite easy to pick up there's the aerial shot there's the uh photographers in their uh car just in front and there's the camera that we get the picture of the headline picture from anyway just ahead of them there to the right quite soul destroying this course really because it's very very long straight flat roads sometimes i know mara talking to marathons they like they like to be able to keep their rhythm but at the same time they don't like to see the core stretching right out in front of it becomes quite uh quite a major psychological problem to sort of like try and dismiss it if you can see it stretched out in front well you know one of the theories that's going around at the moment i'm not sure how much weight there is in this you you'll have your own view steve as kimeto broke 203 the inevitable chat long term turns to the possibility one day of a sub two-hour marathon and there is one theory going around that perhaps one thing that would help a a charge at that significant barrier would be a one straight road marathon that perhaps you could save 20 or 30 seconds by having no corners or turns whatsoever but surely on the one hand you might not lose the odd 0.5 of a second going around a corner but as you've just indicated that would be soul-destroying 31-15 51 at the tin came up but slightly bit faster i think maybe 213 something like that you know they're picking up a little bit as you would expect that first 5k was a bit of a ramble because they just sort of taken it easy and we saw that fun runner taking them through so from here on in they're starting to pick up the rhythm a little bit and we're coming through yet another feeding station they will be drinking this water very very frequently i'm sure during the first part of the race yes getting back to that theory okay well my theory is that i would hate to run a race like that i remember training once um i think it was in wichita kansas um and i went out for a i think it was a 15 mile which was a 20k run and i saw this thing in the distance just like a black dot and i wonder what it was i was running towards it it just didn't get any closer i kept running towards it running towards it running towards it i just couldn't work out what it was it was about 20k away when i got to i found it was a dead cat in the road and i think that sort of attitude sort of to see anything in a distance so far ahead you can't really get to it keep running and you can't get to it psychologically would be a major problem for the marathon runners i think yes just one theory anyway there's confirmation to chat still looking fairly comfortable flying the flag from mongolia kimeto is still there career still there yeah very very close you can see just three seconds separating the first maybe 20 or so in the race bit of shade now i think from the intense heat by the trees the temple of heaven another tremendous piece of architecture and culture and history [Music] no time for the sightseeing for these men there is the first gold medal of these championships up for grabs and yamanet sega just had a little casual glance right and glance left just to see who was around and the answer is everybody i was just double checking there that wilson kip sang was still in the mix as his name wasn't listed in the top 20 but there are more than 20 athletes in that group and he is indeed still there so all the main contenders still right in touch and that looked as though it might have been rigaro pertile heading off the front renuncoff also putting his nose ahead european bronze medalist last year 209-54 is per tile just moving to the front and his teammate just closing in behind him there's uh marucci just obviously making a movie this is strange i don't think the italians would do this sort of thing i think they've been very comfortable just waiting in the group there before the uh before they made a move at this stage anyway but uh obviously taking your theory that you should make a move when you feel pretty good they're doing exactly that like not mine it's steve jones's but uh i i just thought it was interesting that's all but uh somewhere stefano baldini will be watching brilliant major championship performer a couple of bronze medals in the world and then that incredible gold to match the achievements of his compatriot jolindo borden and baldini won in the original olympic stadium in 2004. and the youtube now is just taking up the lead i think from his teammate there plenty of green spaces in beijing which is not necessarily what you'd expect when you land very proud of their parks and all of their history and architecture just a little bit on the numbers they went through the first five kilometers in 1606 and then the second 10k was reached in 21 or the 10k was reaching 31.51 1545 37 men within five seconds the only notable name i think who's off that a little bit is that ryunkova russia is 20 seconds down thank you peter well per teal the italian and his teammate there miucci decided to push it on a little bit it spread out just behind though just looking at it if you look behind none of the athletes are really suffering too much you can usually tell the strain by looking at their faces sometimes but they're looking pretty comfortable just behind keep limo i think he's uh maybe just been picked up there because he's maybe just uh off the back of that group well that would be a surprise if that was the case abraham kapimo another one who's performed well in japan and got a bronze in the commonwealth games last year just ahead of his compatriot munyo mutai but still the two italians at the front and jeff eggleston yeah jeff eggless he's uh he's doing well i mean uh he's an exalted company here but he's obviously uh feeling quite comfortable and this sort of pace it would suit a lot of these athletes really you gotta say the conditions though would be affecting them even now even in 37 minutes into the race they will be feeling a little bit more tired than they would do at this stage of most normal marathons but yeah the american eaglestone looking quite comfortable it's good to see him up there at the front great hopes and expectations for another american distance runner evan yeager well in the steeplechase that's a bit later on in the proceedings this afternoon isn't it it's this morning the the heats for the steeper yep they've brought a stellar squad and not just in the sprints they're uh their strength and depth the americans is really impressive across the middle and long distances as well well this is fascinating not necessarily what we were expecting but still an awful lot of men in contention here and at some stage these conditions will begin to take their toll and when the pace increases we can expect a fair number of this sizeable group to start being spat out the back but gobu there of south africa just i think finding this place a little bit too fast the personal best of uh 2 15. so he's maybe struggling a little bit just coming off the back his confirmation of the lead the team of italy as we said who's uh just with his teammate there just really just keeping ahead of the grip he's not pushing it on too much i don't think and he's no significant injection of pace he's just at the front everybody on the outside there you can see the kenya's just loping along korea keep saying kimito looking very comfortable still as you'd expect there is abraham kiplimo not clear from that shot whether indeed he had been dropped off the back of that group we would expect one or two athletes to have a bad day that is how it goes sometimes you wake up and you just don't feel the magic well six eight we just saw the back of kip sang there he he was looking very very comfortable beautiful long loping stride kenya's obviously not taking any water on board they're up the right of our picture there as they went through that station where you can grab a sponge and just eat yourself so they're not too bothered i think at the moment by the conditions even better cheer the early leader from mongolia making sure he took on board the liquid there he missed a couple of drink stations and good to see chichasa he's just towards the center of your picture and he's handing the drinks to his former compatriots the expatriated ethiopians still keeping ties with his former country and kiplimo must have been dropped because he's running on his own here and if indeed he is off the back of this group this could be a very very long day for the ugandan commonwealth bronze medalist i think there is i think we're just seeing this is the lead group and he's not obviously in front of that so he's obviously dropping off the pack i think you just see him there at the back there obviously the cameras and there's the producers really doing a good job of picking off picking up on the fact that he is moving up the back of this field another athlete just to quickly mention is abdel hadi el hashimi the belgian second in dusseldorf got a pb at 211 and he's up in this league group big powerful man a little bit like to chatter he's built more like a track runner he's wearing the distinctive dark vest with light stripes just glancing over his uh this is the head between eggleston and meucci is that lemmy there i think it is in the picture yet yes just going past the lisa de sisa and there is deceisa silver medalist two years ago making sure he goes under the spray shower doing everything they can to cool off in these ever hotter conditions it's now a quarter past eight on saturday morning here local time and it is already yeah very very warm indeed incredible heat at the moment it's it's going to be creeping up to the mid 30s and uh there is the season we just said he's uh looking very comfortable just in the middle of that pack he's taking all the advantages rob said going through the showers grabbing the water that's the group which again is coming off the back of that lead group i think that's the european bronze medalist alexei rayonkov 9th in london this year just outside 210 one of the factors that we'll obviously have to look for is in this race is when it comes to that the sort of the last 5k also a lot of athletes will come through very fast because they'll be saving themselves whereas the ones that have gone off hard will be dying and we've seen him so many of these world championships rob the way that it changes in the last two or three k where athletes are coming on so so desperately to get into the medals and others are dying and hanging on yes a lot could change in the last couple of kilometers as you said steve even more so in these conditions than would normally be the case in a marathon 684 is dennis kimeto the current world record holder there he is on the outside there looking very very comfortable that long loping stride almost like a jog really for him at the moment seems as though the east africans are quite happy for the likes of purtill and mayucci and batoche and eggleston just to set the pace sitting back in the pack watching and waiting in the knowledge that there's still an awfully long way to go well they've got to think about this it's not like a normal city race where you have to go with a pacemaker you have to it's the war of attrition there you know literally keep going going and going and slowly one by one the men drop off the pace here it's not the same here you've got to weigh up a lot of qualities you've got to weigh up how you feel how the others feel the conditions whether or not it's the right tactical move to make a move at any stage of the race so it's a difficult thing and i think a lot of these athletes probably negate doing that they wait and wait and wait as long as possible before someone else makes the move and then they react well it'll be interesting to see what tactics are employed by the kenyans tonight on our last event of the opening date when they take on mo farah in the 10 000 meters as we get a glimpse there of rayonkov in that chase group good athlete the russian but uh becoming detached from this league group as we were saying earlier in the week leading up to the championship steve the east africans have been a little bit intimidated by mo farah and have almost played into his hands the fact that he can run the 15 in 328 if they leave it late they can't possibly match that kind of speed but maybe the likes of jeffrey cam were all the raiding worlds across country champion or paul yes i mean they're they're in depth but whether they actually have the ability or the courage to take on someone like that and if mo does win this uh this uh race tonight the 10k it was significant in terms of the historical value because that would mean that he has won more consecutive world titles than any other athlete in the past and that includes the likes of viren and bikili so a great a great race to look forward to tonight in the 10k it certainly is the women's shotput final coming up tonight as well so it's the men's marathon the women's shot and the men's 10 000 meters three champions to be crowned on the first of nine days of action here in beijing well there's fujiaro uh looking very good too the japanese athlete just uh in our picture there before it moved there is middle of the picture in red looking very comfortable and as rob was saying this is the sort of athlete that would do very well in these conditions burrell one of the americans just off the back 2 13 26 his lifetime best i think morale's doing as best he can really in these conditions fifth 26th in the uh 15k at the us trials there looking back at his uh previous race he was sick in the manitou springs 10 miles so this sort of race is pretty tough for him but he's representing his country i'm sure he's giving his best but even so just 46 or 47 minutes into the race it's pretty tough well so we've had a couple of casualties so far abraham kaplano dropping off the pace so to the russian rayonkov the european bronze medalist last year marius ionescu he's been around for such a long time great ambassador for romanian distance running european junior champion at 10 000 meters back in 2003 he's done 63-20 for the half marathon 13th back in daegu that was a good performance again in equally tough conditions but not so easy today for the romanian as he drifts off the pace being set by shumi jachassa now to chasser now just pushing the rhythm a little bit more the accelerator going down just a shade one of the spaniards carlos castello just uh drifting off the back there he's a 210 man so one by one the casualties are beginning to mount up we'd expect that really um i can't expect everybody to stay together forever especially in this sort of race with the quality of field that we've got here the chatter though i think has just pushed it a little bit you can see now they're starting to go indian file and that means that there's a little bit of pressure coming on now [Music] very very strong looking athlete to chaser not too dissimilar slightly bigger according to mckayley 47 48 at the 15k that's a 57 almost a 16 minute uh 5k there so the pace is about the same not really drifting too much either way i don't think it has to be honest i think i think just keep this consistent that's all they need to do really the damage will be done by the conditions more than anything else yes and then if there are still a group together towards the end they can start having a carve up in the last five or six kilometers so it's a chassis leading sega in second place and batoche still up there along with fujiyawa i think fujiyawa yeah i think so just doing the red there just moving ahead so no real sort of uh concern about this at the moment from the big favorites in that group just behind about to 15 20 meters behind there as they come to another feeding station maybe that was what he was going to do the chassis decided to move ahead so he can get a good run at the feeding stations without having any problems with trying to grab a bottle of water camera's just focusing in on wang's you three four eight who's just drifting off the back of that lead group flying the flag and proudly so for china one other athlete just to mention from the people's republic of korea charles pack he's only a 212 man but 212 is good enough for the pace they're running at the moment he's in fifth place there kim sang kipratic kimeto korea the big names de deceisa all in the mix but when will they start to make a move still in these conditions it's way too early for somebody to really go for it surely it is tempting isn't it if you're feeling good to make a move you know oh it's you know i'm feeling good i'll make a move now but uh the real damage will be done in the second half as i keep saying and the others are quite rightly just hanging back here a little bit as to chat up and to say move it on deceisa has just closed the gap on the lead too and interesting just in the dynamic of the race sega just looked over his shoulder there the kenyans well korea is now just beginning to move through but they weren't too concerned the kenyans there it's the ethiopians who are reacting to the breaks first and then the kenyans are almost kind of assessing and saying okay this is worth my energy closing the gap or no this one isn't going to go anywhere i'll stay where i am yeah well that's wise isn't it that's what you should do you shouldn't really react too quickly just ease yourself through and you can see there they are just coming up keep stitch on the outside just checking their watches just looking what's going on in front looking around moving to a space where they can run freely because the long stride sometimes is a bit awkward for them so that's why they keep out of the pack sometimes they want to clip themselves and fall over that's the last thing you want to do in a marathon going back now to that group i think which is falling off the back rikonov as we said simbu bear of spade thick drifting now some way back as they start picking a place picking up the pace slightly deceisa now taking it on korea is there kimeto is there so too kipsang the olympic bronze medalist the former world record holder wilson kipsang he's running he's the left-hand side of the two kenyans and slightly confusingly he's wearing kipratic on his vest which is the same name as stephen kipratic but stephen kippertich of course the defending champion is running in the yellow vest of uganda as we once again focus in on the chase group but uh wilson kipsang has come out and said this year my priority is winning the world title he's won so many major championship marathons major city marathons he's won a couple of londons he's held the world record but this is the one he wants yeah he's the hot favorite but uh looking back here to uh the avira treya obviously i think he may be suffering as well they're picking up the ones that are dropping off the back i'm watching funny enough mark career there kenya the talking he's got a lovely stride he's on his toes winner of the paris marathon there he is just literally just drifting along there he doesn't because if he's really suffering at all this stride is almost like a middle distance runner rather than the marathon runner how can you run on your toes for 26 miles that's unbelievable yeah he looks good i mean that's that's the difference i think sometimes with the uh the way that the africans run they treat it almost like a middle distance event it's almost getting to that stage where the pace they're running at is middle distance standard so the group's splitting up now slightly three canyons are there three ethiopians are there so big the big favorites grouping now at the front to cease up pushing it on coming now to around about the one hour maybe that's what they're thinking of just get just take the first hour slowly just ease through and then just see how we go from here on in well that was a significant little step up in pace there because a gigantic group of somewhat 20 or 25 has been whittled down to about 10. kipsang is there so too korea and kimeto all the ethiopians all the kenyans i'm just watching out to see if stephen kipratic is still there the defending champion just spotted munyo mutai towards the back of that group and that might be kipratic trying to close the gap just at the back of the group the defending champion [Music] athletes moving across to the left-hand side of the screen and with good reason making sure they're once again taking full advantage of these water stations if not necessarily to drink than to cool their bodies down well they're doing as much as they can but the actual body core temperature is still going to keep rising as they go through this race and that is stephen kipwich 969 still there but at the back of that group not a big enough gap to begin thinking that the defending champion is struggling but we just need to keep our eye on that he's running alongside muno mutai 972 so the defending champion the olympic champion just at the back of this lead group of 10 or 11 now so we'll just need to watch and see whether he manages to stay there or whether he's just allowing a couple of meters to grow so that he can run in comfort on his own like looking at him he did look as if he was suffering a bit though i mean i'm not doing him in a disservice he looked like he was just maybe finding it a little bit difficult but he's still hanging in anyway group of about 10 now isn't it so uh we're starting to whittle down as we said before to the ones that'll be significant when it comes to the latter part of this race kipratic is at the back of that group mutai is talking to him they're exchanging some words there jackson kiprop still there remember kiprok won the mumbai marathon two years ago and was seventh in the world half in scorching conditions in cavanaugh in bulgaria in october 2012 so three ugandans in the mix here it's not just about the ethiopians and the kenyans although they too have what looks to be a trio of representatives in this group but deceased is doing a good job but he looks if he's working here i don't know whether it's for his teammate to say gay to uh to take him on a little bit here maybe it's a team effort from him don't wait and see just saw there a quick glimpse of the south african not gubu who was running really well but uh maybe at the moment just trying to find his rhythm in the middle of that group just uh looking back at the last um series of times we got was at 15k i mean they've gone through a bit further than that now 49 38 at that point most of the top runners of course were well within touch at that time but there was just looking back on the whole way down the field there were four and a half minutes adrift of the leaders now the men who are in 62nd 63rd and there were in fact four men even behind them well as we approach the one hour mark this is where the race proper will start to unfold rasheed kisery he's been dropped by this little up surge in pace well he's 40 years of age struggling a little bit there kiss three just dropping off as the rhythm increases and you'd expect that really long long straight roads here really it's so destroying it really is and they're running on the other side which is not getting the best shade really they should move across really to the other side because uh they might get a little respite from this intense heat but don't seem to be too bothered by it really just see there kenya's just keeping a check of who's dropping off the back and that's how quickly the group has split there are around what 12 or 13 athletes still in that group but it's far far smaller than it was before you could just see the two italians still running side by side mayuchi and pertile just on the left now out of shot they were helping the early pace setting but they're now backing around 17th and 18th still running together just a quick shot there wasn't it the kumyu river so they're coming up maybe you know maybe it's about the hour mark or so which is bringing them just before the uh and park area where this is the halfway mark so yeah this is i suppose significant point of the race there's the river just behind them good shot of the runners from the back there so you can generally tell by the gate whether someone's suffering or not but they all seem to be pretty good stephen kipritz the defending champion still in that group still at the back of the group but he's in touch there he is nine six nine yeah i was going to say there he is going across maybe to the shade there i'm not sure what he's doing he had a quick word with his teammates didn't he at one stage and said almost move up you know get up get up at the front and uh they're just having a good chat with each other and i'm kamis well junior bronze medalist back in 2006 over 10 000 meters athlete of real caliber well he's transferred to bahrain but he's still been issued with the kenyan passport so almost dual citizenship for him he could literally flick backwards and forwards but if you're in kenya i suppose you take the easy option don't you and try and run for a team that will give you a place in these championships well good to see the ugandans at the front stephen kibrich no longer at the back of that group he's at the front alongside his compatriot jackson kiprop seven two four incidentally is sepo mati pearl from lestoto he's got a best of two 16 21 and he's on course to absolutely annihilate that at the moment but and it is a big buck there's still more than an hour to go in these brutal ever worsening conditions it is absolutely roasting here in beijing and we are just gone half past eight in the morning well i just saw per teal they try to take the lead again but we're switching back now to know of career i think another one of these athletes that's finding this place is a little bit too hard now there's patil again the italians pushing the pace on they're not happy to sit in that group they want to keep the rhythm going he's dropping his arms a little bit and there's his teammate coming to him give him a bit of a hand so good on the italians well that's interesting because not five minutes or so ago they were off the pace in about 16th or 17th obviously deciding to get back in amongst the mix well not in amongst the mix they're actually starting to push the pace on somewhat here the other athletes i think are just looking at the fact that they've suddenly come from nowhere and started to move the pace mayucci now pushing hard this is just over the hour though is this a wise move or is this the only move they've got is it the steve jones philosophy again maybe they had a word with each other and said i'm feeling good let's let's crack on no idea but they're moving through look this is a good bit of push on by moochie here glad to see they've moved across to the shady part of the road the second of the japanese athletes there kazuhiro maida who was fourth in otsi back in march 17th in the marathon in moscow and incidentally 17th in the 10 000 meters a brutal 10 000 meters in osaka on home soil back in 2007. oh bit of a move from moochie here whether this is uh whether this is a significant move or he just feels that he's feeling good as rob said he just wants to make the best of it i don't know but uh the other athletes i think weighed him up as he went past and thought well no big danger but you've got to be careful well he's the european champion he was 19th in the 10 000 metres two years ago so he's clearly got good speed endurance the italian well interesting development there's the 20k mark picking up the pace now 15 35 so they've dropped about 20 seconds on this uh 5k but again it will bring us into what sort of time i think rob around about the uh 213 i think something like that yeah it's it's still pretty steady to be honest but that injection of pace over the last 5k explains why so many of that group have been dropped but uh this is a very very confident piece of front running from the european champion and interesting to see for the first time tachasa has gone ahead of meuchi's compatriot reguero patil and maybe just deciding that the italian has some pedigree in major championship marathons albeit at a european level and that he's looking good enough to warrant closing down so dichata has given chase he still looks pretty comfortable though mayu doesn't he yeah he's looking good i mean the italians have a great tradition of performing well at major championships of marathon so if they've got a chance here mouchi thinks he's in with it then he's going to take whatever opportunity he has abiano joseph in that chase group as we look at meucci taking on board his own specific liquids in the red bottle in his left hand and then the water over the top of the head in the right just looking back through the history it's uh the only other italian to win a medal i think was uh vincenzo monica back in 1999 when he finished in second place so history is there well he'll be joining not only him but also the likes of stefano baldini who's finished on the podium and jolindo bought in never won the world championship marathon the olympic champion in 1988 but he did finish on the podium so bordan baldini great italian distance runners from over the years and actually if you look back at the history books on the track as well the italians had a big impact alberto kova winning that five-way sprint for the line in helsinki in 1983 i think it was five athletes in 2801 his winning margin was something like 0.1 of a second so the italians have got a great history when it comes to the world championships keeping up with the splits we've been through 20k of course now 63 minutes 23 so that's a little short of halfway um and we've had a very level pacing deed 1545 the last 5k after 1547 1545 the 1606 opener and at that stage there were 22 men within 10 seconds but then the gaps really opening up well i think that peter's right this there's not been much change in the pace but the actual effort needed to keep that pace going has been significant i think and once again the two italians finding themselves at the front munyo mutai is there in that lead group just glancing over he's running on the left-hand side glancing left glancing right and stephen kipratic the defending champion still looking fairly comfortable in that group and look at the three canyons on the right of picture now center frame all of them looking at their watches all of them looking comfortable and none of them getting too involved in what's going on at the front quite happy to sit there at the back of that group ready and waiting to pounce just previously i think we saw a quick shot of eggleston there the american just disappearing off the back as the pace increases so finding it very difficult as the two challenges yet again keep injecting these little rhythms of uh little spurts of increasing in pace but teal now doing his job future we just saw previous to that they're not happy to run at the rhythm that uh the others are dictating there's eggless i think it is yeah just slightly finding this rhythm now a little bit too much it's still running well perhaps just uh halfway for him in the marathon at the moment well now we get into the race proper and this is where it starts to get very interesting indeed well it's all going out there though on the the heat and the intolerable position uh conditions that we've got here for the men in the marathon we haven't mentioned this man before every abraham here of switzerland the ex-era train now looking very comfortable we've suddenly come through there and uh just making his move i suppose he's uh looking very comfortable some of you haven't seen much up until now interesting you pointed him out he ran well in seoul recently in very humid conditions he's won the zurich marathon a couple of times in his adopted country ninth in the europeans last year but a pretty good half marathon pb 60 42 so today abraham the expatriated ethiopian cannot be ruled out but still per teal determined to set the pace and the rhythm here at the front around about an hour of running just over still to go even if there's a little bit of an injection of pace but how significant steve none of the three kenyans have been interested in this pace at all the world record holder the olympic bronze medalist the winner of this year's paris marathon all three right there but not interested in poking their noses out in front perhaps they sense the real hard graft is still to come yeah you can see i mean look at eggleston he's suffering now and these are class athletes but teal still working hard in front at this stage of the race this is a good you know good effort from him he's pushing everything he's got into the world championships and it's a good move trying to run as hard as you possibly can you don't uh have any regrets after a race if you do that that's exactly what he's doing as you said the three candies keep checking their watches i think rob they're checking their watches watching the distance watching their time they're just biding their time at the moment quite happy watching everybody make a move come back make a move come back not toying with the field as such but quite content i think to do what they have to do with as little effort as possible yes still a long way to go and i wonder if stefano baldini is watching this race bronze medalist in edmonton and in paris bourdain got a bronze for italy in 1987 behind douglas wakihouri they ended up first and second in rome uh in seoul rather in 1988 in the olympics per teal looking over his shoulder and almost all of the big names are still in touch in that group they're quite content to let him go as we look at eccleston grinding through the gears here yeah this is tough isn't it when you get to this stage like that you know you're out the contention it's getting hard and you've still got half of half the marathon to go well patil's doing a good job mariucci his teammate again just uh just behind me using himself to the front of that group we have to wait and see whether he's still there but he's working hard but the gap never more than say 15 meters or so there's just behind they just got him on the string at the moment they're just letting him go so far but not too far yeah you get the impression with the the little effort seemingly little effort that the three kenyans have had to produce so far you get the feeling if this was maybe a different athlete at the front the long strides would extend and very quickly the gap would be reduced but let's take nothing away from the italian he's really going for it as fujiwara perhaps now begins to show the effects of the heat and humidity in that group and now he's off the back you just see that little red figure there fujiyawa just coming off the back now as patil still steam still seems to push it harder and harder but it's the work rate isn't it you watch someone like patil his work rate is quite significant he's working hard whereas you look back to the kenyans they're drifting they're not into that area where they're working hard at the moment they're just taking their time so too the ugandans and so too the ethiopians this is different way of running this is a relaxed way of running whereas patil is working hard you can see so too much just behind that's not to say they might not win but it's to say they're putting more effort in at the moment to do so well they must have spoken about this this morning and in the week leading up to this marathon they must have decided if it was fairly slow if if all the athletes were respecting the conditions that they would take it on they would try and break it up and they would have a go at taking the race to the east africans and it's actually great to see european athletes brave enough and bold enough to do this yeah i think this is very courageous no question about that both these two men are trying hard here and they know the opposition they know what standard is behind them you know it's not as if they're trying to break away from a normal field this is a world-class field they're trying to break so give them credit they're doing the best they can and to a certain extent they're doing the job dropping his arms down i think he's feeling tight maybe the idea is to try and get a big enough gap that it almost falls the rest of the field and they uh they sneak the wind as it were but i'm not sure that's capable really with the color behind it really to wait and see [Music] especially with the likes of kimeto and kip sang perhaps sacrificing what could be a huge payday in the autumn going for a race such as amsterdam or new york with a massive payday guaranteed irrespective of finnish not opting for that the two kenyans they're opting for glory patil just looked over his right shoulder there and there was his teammate we wanted to have a few words are they having a few words no i think she's just moving to the front now to do his job well they're watching this back as as rob said in italy they must be pleased with about why their men are taking it to the rest of the field at the moment and actually as they as they do look round they have actually opened up a little bit of an increase in that gap seven seconds eminently bridgeable of course as far as the rest of the world-class field are concerned but this is superb to see from the italians really going for it here in the most brutal and testing of conditions and look at the caliber of athletes in this chase group totally unintimidate intimidated the two europeans but can they keep it going that is the huge huge question [Music] well the good thing about the courses you can actually see them i mean there's no bends where they can disappear you don't know how far they go which is disadvantage for the italians because you know if you do that every time you go around the curve you maybe sneak another three or four meters or so and then you know look up before you know it there's a gap maybe over 200 meters rather than 50. does that work from an athlete's perspective if you if you know i know it's a little bit of a trodden cliche but if you go around a corner if you're the chase athlete or you're in a chase group if you do get round the corner and you think hang on a minute this is increased does it does it chip away at that belief i think it must do if anybody starts moving away we see now mayucci starting to do the same thing if you start moving away and it starts going away and you've got nothing in the tank then you start thinking well this is a major problem here but it's not going to be the case i don't think with the chasing group here i think they just know that they're going to wait until a certain point in the race before they start really piling on the pressure and these two at the moment are trying to do quite the opposite they're trying to get away before that actually happens so it's a game of chess really here really a mental chess game between these two these two the italians have obviously decided before the race they're going to try and make their break before any significant move comes from the africans in the last part of the race and by doing so hopefully get a big enough gap that the the chase won't catch them well it's a brutal way to try and win a marathon or win a medal but all credit to them but we do have to remember that on the pace that these guys are running at the moment there is still the best part of 55 or 54 minutes of running to go yeah but that's the great thing about championship races isn't it it's not just a a a a city marathon where they go out with pacemakers and that right from the word go you know almost who's going to be one two and three because it's the favorites that actually chase the pacemaker here you've got all sorts of things going on here the italians throwing things down um the the africans vying for each other deciding you know looking at each other whether the kenyans are going to make a move whether the ethiopians are going to make a move and get uganda's are going to make a move and they're watching each other and sometimes by watching each other you miss out on the rabbit in front and that's what the italians i think are gambling on two to four el hashimi the belgian still in touch in that group just at the back and just talking about the body language of the two italians i've noticed patil tends to just lean a little bit to his right hand side mayucci however still looks very very strong and very comfortable the european champion a really lovely athlete to watch in terms of his rhythm and his technique well they must know before the race that it's going to be running a reasonable time here you know not not to the world record place but at a reasonable time and once it gets to that sort of area of capability then there is a chance that you could win it and this is what these guys are doing they're realizing that it's not going to be a 2-2 marathon it's going to be a 210 or 212 or maybe just slightly quicker and that's in their area of capability and they can do that if they can cope with the conditions maybe that's what they're thinking at the moment i can i'm still in with a chance well mayuchi is a 211 man the european champion he does have good track speed finishing in the top 20 in the 10 000 meters well they've just passed through the 25 kilometer point as we just saw that sort of tower across them and they went through that in one hour 1916 and that means that the last um 5k have in fact slowed up a little bit 1553 and yet the gaps have increased and that really has tested me to what steve was talking about before he really is trying on these athletes now they are slowing up well that's probably why these two have gone ahead they realize that the pace has slowing up they just want to keep it going and by doing so they've got this little gap there's a great double picture of the two italians interesting to see the wire through the top of patil's drink to make it as easy as possible to hook it up on your arm and make sure you don't miss your own specific liquids [Music] well it looks as if it's just water because i wouldn't be pouring anything sugar over my head at this stage of the race but there's a great picture of the of the birdsnest stadium that's the finish of the race meanwhile back with the marathon still per teal leading sega and deceisa just looking around to see which of the kenyans are still in contention wilson kipsan 688 is tracking the move of the italian starting to get towards the race proper now there's a one of the supporters or maybe just a fan of the ugandan team 972 munyo mutai still right there in the group and no move as yet from shumi to chasa but he's still right there and i wonder whether one or two of the kenyans are just beginning to disappear sometimes difficult to tell from this angle but we'll keep our eye out and see if we can spot kimeto and korea and i think there may only be wilson kipsang from the ethiopian trio in that group he's towards the back the long loping stride and there's some real pain being endured by these athletes here nine six nine is stephen kipritich the defending champion he's still there running beside munyo mutai but dennis kimeto the current world record holder looks to me as though he's not in that lead group and neither is mark correa the winner of the paris marathon earlier this year so wilson kipsang is the solo kenyan in that group so that's the biggest news we've had since we disappeared a few moments ago to show you the first of those four heats in the women's heptathlon the pace and the conditions are beginning to take their toll and not just on the europeans and north americans on the might of east africa as well [Music] four six eight is bohanno lemmy won dubai at the start of this year and still in the mix there a great performance from sapo matibel the athlete from lestoto he's on course to absolutely annihilate his pb remember i was mentioning he's a 216 man he's running in second place 724 and you can tell he wasn't one of the fancied athletes because he wasn't given his name on his vest simply the number so it's italy from lestoto with mayucci the european champions still in third place and what odds would you have got on that combination for first and second with an hour and a half on the clock with such quality elsewhere in this race but the kenyans are struggling well give them credit they're doing a damage to the africans here these two italians and per tier in particular is doing a real job of work out there in front in the race so far conditions as we said are appalling really for the marathon perfect for the sprints here in the stadium but the italians are working hard and they're doing what they have to do to break this stronghold that the africans have had on the marathon for so long well if this is a glimpse at the front and it does indeed look as though it is because we can't see any other athletes ahead of him this is an incredible injection of pace yeah he's just gone through 30 kilometers 130 502 and 1538 last 5k and no one else has gone through there yeah 1538 he's injecting what a 30 second differential here in the 5k that's why he's getting this gap but teal the italian though is uh trying to close the gap you can see though that's uh that's a big move well fascinating developments he's a little bit ragged he's left to right and we do need to remind ourselves with only 137 having been run there is an awful long way to go here but look at his leg turn over steve this is insane yeah he's really pushing on whether he can maintain this sort of rhythm is a big question mark really as you said but he is making an effort whether it's in experience or whether it's just sheer exuberation that he's feeling great he's moving well you can see his head's rolling a little bit whether this is a comfortable stride pattern i don't know but pert teal has realized that he's got to go after him this is a significant move and they've got a counter patilo he's always been up there hasn't he's always looked good he's always tried his best he's always pushed on he keeps glancing over his shoulder i think that's to see whether his teammate is still there [Music] marucci though is in that group just behind him wow look at this he really has shot ahead 200 300 meters in that space when we were just watching that uh heat of the heptathlon hurdles well steve can you remember seeing a lead like this from an athlete as unfancied as this in a world championship marathon before this is extraordinary well the interesting thing about that race is that the three canyons look really cool calm collected and easy and then mark career drifted off the back the paris marathon winner from earlier this year then so too dennis cameto as you've indicated peter the world record holder smashed his way to the title in berlin last year but it's still gourmet gabriel selassie of eritrea in the lead and there he is and we have i was going to serenade sega in second place i was gonna say segay is closing though and he's closing fast but gabriel cersei as we saw he actually paced the chicago marathon for 35k and so he's used to running hard for 35k but he's got a little bit longer to go here in this marathon but he's done well he really has while steve when you consider that the man leading at the moment well i say man he's a boy he's only 19 years of age extraordinary to have such a pedigree already sixth in chicago seventh in the world half marathon championships last year but look at yamanei segay he was fourth in berlin six years ago he's breathing he's puffing he's panting he's in second place and he's not too far behind the ethiopian and he will remember the fact that he missed out on a bronze medal in germany by just seven seconds so it's gabriel selassie of eritrea not the highly he's retired the ethiopian or is doing later this year certainly his fast major championships is concerned gabriele selassie of eritrea leading sega of ethiopia is in second place and i think judging by the pictures there's a battle royal going on for third but it doesn't involve the kenyans and i can tell you at the last checkpoint the top kenyan believe it or not was mark career in 21st place well that's amazing i mean everybody before this race thought the kenyans would dominate but actually they're suffering more than most so gary selassie as rob said shot to the front there to at one stage and almost had a 200 meter lead but segate of ethiopia is closing fast just behind him there he is he's looking around segay just coming into the picture now now whether these two will run together for a while or not is the big question mark i think segay is trying as hard as he was literally over striding to catch up gabriel selassie and gary selassie though looks very comfortable he doesn't look as if he's struggling but he looks as if the gap is closing but look behind ca doesn't look happy both of them continually looking behind and steve don't they realize every time you do that not only do you send a message to your rival but your momentum turns backwards as well and you lose the odd tenth of a second yeah but i think rob going through their minds they're thinking that there's some great runners behind and they just want to make sure that they're going away from them that's the main thing i think they're just concentrating on the fact that they can't believe i think some of them that they're actually putting away from some of the greatest marathon brothers of all time very easily over this last part of the race now it is a ugandan in third place but i don't necessarily think it's stephen kippert is the defending champion he's having a good run kipratic but i think he's back in fourth i think it's very tight it's mutai i think that's up there at the moment and he's a drift of about 100 meters behind those two at the moment there he is just uh in out of the picture but these two now running together a little bit and that's good because they've got to keep the rhythm going without tiring or trying to be too much battling at this stage of the race well there's huge motivation for both men here arguably slightly more for yamanei segate missing out on a medal in 2009 he is genuinely world class he won rotterdam in 2012 in a really really quick time he's got a cracking personal best 204 448 so he's inside 205 at his very best and he's got the teenager gourmet gabriel selassie for company chopping and changing the two of them mungo mutai is having a great run in third place he too knows what it feels like to miss out on a major championship bronze because he finished just three seconds off the podium last year in glasgow in the commonwealth games he's in third with stephen kiprotic having a good run but at the moment today out of the medals having won the last two global major titles and there for the first time steve with two hours on the clock the bird's nest is homing interview well i don't know whether they caught a glimpse of that it must be welcome relief but gary selassie as we said before just 19 years of age he actually reading his uh he written his biography he actually went against his father's wishes or his parents wished to become an international runner they they wanted him to attend university well looking at the way he's doing at the moment he's doing a very good job of uh appeasing his father i think or his parents because this is a fantastic run here in the world championships it really is well he's he's already come six in chicago he's one of the fastest juniors in history seventh in the world half he could probably retire in three years time with a global medal maybe maybe a global title we shall see well sergey called him up but i think he took a lot out of himself to do that out of the two i would say that gary salasi looks more comfortable but these two at the moment there's that gap of about uh well hundreds or so meters on mutai just behind them this is great side by side no quarter asked no quarter given and as you say perhaps perhaps segate just lost a little bit of energy in his attempt to close the gap the 30 year old ethiopian is grimacing a little bit you could argue he's looking ever so slightly more uncomfortable than his eritrean rival and there's history here for the eritrean they've only won one medal as we look at mutai the ugandan in third place being roared on by his support staff there on the bike that just shows you how fast they're going i'm just going to say that you get an indication as to how quick they are so mutai going through some tough times here just needs to hang on yeah he does need to hang on the gap slightly i think lengthening just behind mutai i think there might be another chase on we'll have to wait and see who that is coming through but you can see that gabriel selassie though has decided to push it on yet again and he's a little gap here yeah between him maybe yes there is he's starting to push it on a bit more mutai there it is that relaxed rhythm he's not tiring i think bhutan but he's not actually picking it up significantly to close the gap that's the most important factor every selassie pushing on yet again he's got a big gap mutai ahead of fourth and fifth of both of them looking over their shoulders again i think that was significant for sergey he's almost given up i think and if gabriel selassie can keep this rhythm going he's going to break the man behind well let's just talk about the history of eritrean distance running there's one name that repeatedly turns up as far as the history books are concerned and that's the name zerzaneta dese the first eritrean olympic medalist got a bronze behind kenonissa in athens in 2004 he's also claimed so far the only eritrean world championship medal he got a silver once again behind ken anissa mckayley in berlin they've never won a world championship gold and look at how the 19 year old is stripping distance away from the hugely experienced ethiopian in second place what a story this would be for the entire country if gabriel selassie is able to come home with eritrea's first gold medal whilst still a teenager he looks good he looks good and i think he knows he looks good that's the thing today behind you can see he's trying again he's pushing hard the gap is opening up though i think he looked back in desperation just a few minutes ago to see where the others were and i think he knows if he's just gonna hold it now for this second place if he can but the charge will come on there's still a lot of racing to go he's looking again where are you am i still clear but you can see behind athletes are closing this is what i said about the last part of this marathon in these conditions athletes die hard and they come strong at the finish things can change in the last few minutes it's not over yet mutai i think he's in his rhythm i don't think he's got much left in that tank he's doing the best he can to hang on for third great run though from the ugandan remember missing out on a medal last year in glasgow by just three seconds well bear in mind in this race we started with the world record holder the former world record holder and the reigning world and olympic champion and it looks very much barring an attack of cram as though none of the three of them are going to end up on the podium it's been a race that's been turned on its head and at the moment as mutai continues to get that and now the guy on the bike has drifted off he wants to get in the stadium to see mutai hopefully finish the race on the podium in third place but it looks as though it's a teenager who is going to take the honours here incredible maturity and stamina for one so young i mean the traditional route steve into marathons is these gnarled guys of 30 and 32 having hammered themselves and worked speed into their legs after years and years of five and ten thousand meter running on the track guys like gabriel selassie are turning those traditional routes upside down and inside out they are but the thing is that this is a competitive race this isn't a a major city race where it's full-on from the gun this is a competitive situation man against man taxis come into it conditions come into it and i think this is where people like gary selassie here can really make a name for themselves they might not be able to run the the two-hour tour two hour two minute marathons but they can win championships they can come forward and win the gold medals looking back over his shoulder again but you would suspect from the body language of yamanei segate you suspect the ethiopian has settled for second place 205 at 40k so they're still well what 212 213 pace yeah but the significance was that split again wasn't it 1502 yeah that's that's the difference that's the damage he's running faster now over this last 5k than perhaps any stage of the race so that's why he's pulling away and he's making everybody else disappear into the distance well somewhere hopefully the legendary cersenator dese is watching and cheering and celebrating kissing his water bottle gabriel set out doing it once and twice gabriel selassie the eritrean teenager knows in his mind that this race and this title is absolutely wrapped up what an extraordinary performance from a 19 year old i know we keep stressing that but this is incredible in an event so hard in conditions so brutal this has been a real demonstration of strength and class yeah it's been a great run i mean it has we'll keep using that phrasing mouth it's been a war of attrition really and uh the conditions here have been absolutely incredible 35 degree heat all the way through this race they put it on early in the morning half past set but it really didn't make any difference at all it's been warm through the evening previous to the race and then it's just been heating up all the way through mutai doing his best taking on as much water as he can the gaps still the same the camera angle for shortening it i think gabriel selassie though is looking very complicated doesn't know which way to go oh this is incredible slowing down he's not sure he's got to maintain his focus here just perhaps there showing a little bit of his inexperience i thought for one awful moment there he was actually going to stop well he's looking around just follow that camera in front really that's all he's going to do and keep looking into it and keep running well and he'll win the gold he must know he must have studied the course he must know that the race is finishing in the stadium well it's a little bit behind him though there's a little bit of confusion there are one or two areas where you can drift off into another section of the course because of the barriers and i think he got confused there but i think now he realizes he's just going to follow the lead car all the way through until he gets to the stadium but look at the gap behind mutai there's no one there that i can see behind him and that's a good long road of about two or three hundred meters or so i just wonder with mutai in third place whether his comfort in tough conditions is coming to the fore as gabriel selassie now has a full and what will be from his perspective a wonderful view of the birds eye stadium birdsnest stadium just filling up here now and he will get a massive reception from the crowd well there's a splits at the 40k he's got that 12 second gap on to sega a muay thai 39 seconds back but look at the gap between mu type and the chase over a minute behind him [Music] great run it really is i know robert keeps saying he's just 19 and it is inexperienced but he's come good here today hasn't he really well we've just been talking peter matthews alongside me has been furiously working through the stats books to find out how many if any younger champions they've been in world championship history 19's pretty close to the top surely in terms of the youngest well there's been some young ones at different events but he's by two years the youngest ever marathon winner okay that was uh 21 no two years the youngest medalist ahead of the lisa of ethiopia and the previous uh gold medalist 23 or 22. i mean the youngest individual champion is the woman tyranish to barbara at 17. of course there have been a number of teenagers at various disciplines but the marathon is not usually thought of as an event for teenagers which is the point you're making and he is by two years the youngest ever marathon world championship medalist and almost four years the youngest gold medal well he's actually now this is the course for the walks he's actually now coming around the bend and there's the bird nest right in front of him he's up on the scoreboard and about four or six massive screens here in the stadium and there's a big crowd here actually for the event and when he comes into the stadium i think they will go absolutely ballistic this is a great run from a youngster it really is well i'm looking forward to seeing his celebrations we've already seen him getting excited kissing his water bottle twice i think we might see some exuberance from the teenager when he enters the stadium and gets that little rush of adrenaline remember he hasn't just defeated any field he's probably defeated one of the best fields assembled at a world championships five of the six fastest men in the world this year were on the start line and i wonder what odds you would have got on gabrielle selassie coming away as the champion great run for sega after just missing out agonizingly in berlin six years ago but i think closing the gap as quickly as he did on gabriel selassie really really hurt him and i think the eritrean sensed that which is why he put in another injection of pace and as soon as he did that on that second occasion the ethiopian had no response well that's that is maturity within itself the ability to sense that someone's come up to you and they're tired because when someone usually comes up to you they go past you and that's when the problems start but he realized that uh sergey was tiring coming up to him and as soon as he did he looked at him and kicked again well great stories on all three of our medalists and i think we can start referring to them as the medalists he's still unsure where to go just get into the shadow and emerge to the triumphant cheers of the crowd he keeps looking behind but his lead is enormous sega isn't even in sight and this is a moment and a feeling reserved for only those he men and women who come and conquer at 26.2 miles he will have the luxury of the applause of an entire stadium as well as deplored it's from an entire nation back home oh he's loving it isn't he look he's loving it i told you it would be exuberant oh look he's going to the flag [Applause] absolutely on their feet what a performance from this youngster he's got the flag he's coming down the straight now he's going to do another lap i hope he realizes he's got to do another lap it's a great run from him really amazing amazing performance from one so young he is the sixth fastest junior in history and he is [Music] the world champion what a performance yamanei sega coming into the stadium in second place he's not sure which way to go keep going remember this man finished fourth in the world championships in berlin and mutai finished fourth in the commonwealth's last year sega is absolutely exhorted exhausted it's a salute for the ethiopians in the crowd and at last he is on the major championship podium silva for sega and already into the stadium is munyo mutai the heartache of missing out by three seconds at the commonwealth games turns to delight in 2015 he is the world championship bronze medalist and he's done that with real real class i think the athletes as well as us were confused whether they had to do another lap really and they literally just had to cross the line no one was there to tell them to stop or to uh to take it easy so there was a bit of confusion there and i think they're more than happy not to have to run another lap around the track to be honest nevertheless winning time though what a wonderful performance two hours 12 28 it's not the world records that we see in city races but nonetheless a fabulous race to watch that is one of the great great performances eritrea's first world championship title mutai just about breaking into a job 213-29 getting on the podium continuing the tradition of his illustrious compatriot stephen kiprotic he's got the bronze as the fourth place athlete comes into the stadium a great run from the italian brilliant performance there they were right in the mix it's reguero per thiel who's come home in fourth good run from him season's best 2 14 22 to chatta coming home [Music] and there's stephen kipritich not defending his title this time shumi was fifth uh kipratich absolutely exhausted some big cheers well they still think there's a lap to go here some of these athletes and they're running around but it's not unfortunately they realize now as they come to the high jump fan where most of the athletes are just lining up that there's not a lap to go i'm not surprised really that there isn't anybody to stop the athletes really at the finish there to tell them that it's all over a bit of confusion really well not not one of them has known that that's the finish and here's another the third ugandan what a what a riot triumph for uganda and he's still heading around and he's he's gone past the high jumpers no he stopped now but once again east african domination and yet no kenyans we had three different east african countries getting the medals yeah and they had such pedigree here coming into the race as well they'll be bitterly disappointed and actually that's the second world championship marathon in a row where the kenyans have not taken an individual medal it was kipratic de sisa and toler in first second and third in 2013 but today belonged to gabriel selassie gurney not hailey an eritrean not an ethiopian 19 years of age and he is already a world champion how many more accolades will come to this incredibly mature young man he ran that with such style and there was an awful lot left had he needed it in the last few hundred meters he made the climax of that race look easy in brutal brutal conditions segay saluted the ethiopians in the crowd delighted to upgrade fourth from berlin to second here in beijing and then it was who completed the podium another medal for the ugandans but this time it wasn't kipratic their former champion it was munyo mutai what a race and what a climax for the three east african nations mutai with the bronze and no doubt there'll be some great celebrations and i'm sure he'll be congratulated warmly by his compatriot the olympic champion stephen kipratic there's the first gold silver and bronze of the 2015 world championship and it's the teenager gabriel selassie who's come out on top for eritrea what are some weary athletes coming in today from that to marathon i'm not surprised here's the silver i was going to say that looks like the silver coming they're the early leaders of the race but suffering over that last half great picture there of the medalist as they do their lap of honour this time they will do a lap around the track but with their flags rather than during the race former european medalist there renuncoff absolutely exhausted the russian but there's the lap of honor and they can always find the energy for that great celebrations for all three of them eritrea's first world championship title foreign

Channel: World Athletics

Views: 74,207

Rating: 4.8361583 out of 5

Keywords: World Athletics, worldAthletics, IAAF, Athletics, World Championships, track and field, men's marathon, marathon, running, 2015, beijing, china

Id: P1sSCjkPoMg

Length: 115min 5sec (6905 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 13 2020