Women's Marathon | World Athletics Championships Beijing 2015

good morning and welcome to the very last day of action here in beijing at the 2015 iwaf world championships it hardly seems five minutes ago that we were sitting welcoming you to the men's marathon on the opening morning last saturday uh we've had eight action-packed days and we've got some cracking track finals coming up for you this evening but here we are talking to you it just gone 20 past seven in the morning local time and we are very much looking forward to the women's marathon and then everyone will take a break and we'll return for the last of the track finals the men's and women's 4x4 the women's 5000 meters men's 1500 some great finals to come tonight and a fascinating marathon here this morning the usual array of world-class ethiopians and kenyans and edna kiplight the double world champion going for a hat-trick here in beijing and there'll be many who want to stop her but it would be quite some achievement and actually if you remember back to the women's marathon in moscow there's casho just warming up the marathon in moscow was one of the best races in russia when a certain italian valerie straneo hit the front after about seven or eight k took everybody apart with the exception of edna kiplicat and they had a duel in the sun in moscow which the kenyan won but only just so if we get a race that's half as good here this morning as the one we enjoyed two years ago in moscow we're in for a treat i'm rob walker and alongside me poised and ready for action he's had his scrambled egg he's had his pastries for breakfast i'm joined once again by the irrepressible steve ovech thank you rob actually it was a bowl of muesli you got that wrong already but uh let's take your facts and figures are not as a ride during the race itself but the conditions here in beijing at the moment almost is because you can get ready for the marathon running the temperatures dropped considerably and although it may obviously heat up there you go just 21 degrees partly cloudy perfect really for marathon running which is a godsend for the women most of the walks previous to this had pretty intense conditions really um but here in beijing now i would say that most of these women would be very very happy with the uh temperature at the moment it might creep up it's still very early what is it it's only half past seven here local time and you can think that maybe in another two hours or so it might slightly increase but hopefully it'll keep it at a reasonable sort of level there's nearly 70 runners in this women's race they're just about uh getting ready before the call-up most of these athletes have been down there for the last half hour or so just checking their preparations before the 42 plus kilometers in front of them nice course it goes past some of the most magnificent uh scenery in the city of beijing i always think marathon runners have the best of it really they have a free tour of the city really all they have to do is run around it that's all uh whereas the poor walkers had to go up and down just outside the stadium but the the the cause for the uh marathon is absolutely superb goes past most of the major sites in the city and we'll give you those as they go through there's kip rob one of the very good uh teammates of kit mcgatt just about to uh toe the line yeah she's a decent athlete won the berlin half marathon earlier this year was second in tokyo that was sarah klein she's just giving a little wave to the camera cephei of bahrain another one of the expatriated ethiopians there's the fastest time in the world this year ma de baba she set that here in china incidentally so way back on the 3rd of january paula radcliffe's world records and championship record from helsinki a tough one to beat it may not be quite as quick here today we're expecting it to warm up although as steve was saying the conditions are fairly good at the moment past the forbidden city heading towards the 9k point then that sharp right hand turn before they snake their way out towards the kunu river possibly a little bit of shade there as they head up towards hadean park at the halfway stage when will the big break come men's race last saturday was absolutely fascinating then heading north past the language and culture center at the university the olympic forest park and then snaking their way back towards this magnificent olympic complex [Music] and the glory leg in the stadium so here is your full lineup of runners and riders we saw sarah klein waving to the camera the australian watch out for eunice kowa the kenyan who now runs for bahrain she's gone low 221's this year and chang quin ding is a fascinating athlete she had a local win in china and then nine days later came 16th in the world cross there's the baba fastest woman in the world this year sega third in london and two for the other of the ethiopians won the london marathon and one shanghai last year japanese trio shigatomi there she was 11th in new york a couple of years ago had a reasonable run in the london london olympic marathon a little while ago the two koreans useful athletes and it will be fascinating to see how the athletes who are used to humidity cope here and whether they get any advantage gui on kim people's republic of korea 227 and hai song kim 227 as well and then heading down towards the last list caramenko she's got a season's best of 240 might struggle a little bit and then three americans the best of whom is burla with 220 801 her lifetime best so it could get very hot and sticky although at the moment it's fairly cool and if we remember back to the men's race we had some serious talent there dennis cameto the current world record holder he had to drop out wilson kipsang olympic bronze medalist from london and former world record holder he too had to drop out there were some major casualties last saturday and it turned out to be a 19 year old eritrean gabriel selassie not that one a new one who took victory in the men's race the youngest ever world championship marathon winner there's two foot just in the foreground there as you would expect really the three kenyans and the three ethiopians are amongst the standout names and there's uh one of a number of the cultural sites xiang dingman park the athletes won't have too much time to uh enjoy their surroundings but we shall certainly as we accompany them with the heli tele and the motorbikes we shall certainly get a good view of the city and they've done a brilliant job with the championships haven't they steve it's uh the city has shown its finest colours here it's been enthusiastic good atmosphere in the stadium it's been a class nine days yeah it's been absolutely fantastic actually incredibly well organized and to be honest the crowds here have really enjoyed their athletics there's been some massive crowds in the stadium there's uh yes there's uh the reigning champion that's sorry not the ranking that's a queue up of bahrain they're trying to shuffle the athletes around into their team positions here which is a bit awkward some of them just want to just be at the back but they're trying to force them to be in certain teams positions though being delayed a little bit at the start here but yeah as i said the actual city itself has been fantastic they've opened their hearts to this championships and the crowds have been absolutely wonderful they really appreciate it they've clapped and enjoyed all the athletics in the stadium and there's been some big crowds here really big crowds in the olympic stadium so let's hope that these athletes as they wind their way around the course get some support from the locals i'm sure they will twofoot london marathon winner this year victorious in shanghai last year anxious moments there are the kenyans and there's our first glimpse on the far right of picture now coming center edna kiplicat the two-time world marathon champion and she follows a long list of great champions greta weitz the legendary norwegian she won the first edition rosa motor won in 87 catherine ender raber she's had two victories but not back to back but no woman has ever won three world titles in the marathon so the best in the world have gathered edna kiplight aiming for a piece of history she had a disappointing run in london this year finished 11th but she has said she's prioritizing the major championship which is great to see last couple of moments ticking down so a fascinating women's marathon just about to get underway and here we go the 2015 women's world championship marathon is underway and we shall be enthralled with all the twists and turns of drama the role the humidity and heat will play towards the latter stages of the race it's all still yet to unfold the might of the east african rivals separated by that vast glorious rift valley the kenyans against the ethiopians and some very useful athletes from china and japan and korea and they certainly can't be discounted even if their lifetime bests are some way short of their east african rivals because the times may not be sparkling here especially if it gets as warm as it did for the men's race last saturday so always a real tingle of anticipation when it comes to the big marathons just watching everybody get into their early rhythm and the ethiopians seem keener just to make their presence felt at the front rather than the kenyans and edna kiplight the defending champion just loping along one of the tallest in the field there she is towards the right hand side of your picture one of the one of the fascinating things about uh a world championship marathon as opposed to the city marathon is the groups are so small you get the gun going in a city marathon and you look back there's a whole wave of humanity coming through but here look at that small group now in the women just 60 or 70 runners just finding their own little pattern now you saw just the beginning they're all standing in the start line with their watches and as we said in the in the walks in the marathons pace judgment obviously vital and these are serious runners each one of these knows exactly what they're going to do in terms of pace judgment and that's why at the moment they're just trundling along taking this first part of the marathon as casually as they possibly can there are some athletes in this that might even find the early pace difficult but then they're here to represent their country each country at these world championships gets a chance to send one athlete to participate in any event and sometimes they take part in the marathon because obviously they haven't got the standards necessary to be a part of the track but marathon running obviously is open to everybody all right salem just uh setting the early pace for algeria she's got she's got she's not a bad performer actually she's the lg record holder on the track really three thousand five and ten and uh obviously one of their marathon runners too she's moved up to the marathon very successful that eight to nineteen olympics back in 2008 so she's she's a reasonable competitor 36 years of age now so she's experienced rob and i think that for her the idea is just to get up front as long as she can and just keep the pace going well the other interesting thing about her you've said you've mentioned she ran well in beijing in 2008 she also performed well in osaka in 2007. so that seemed such a long time ago now so she knows she can perform in ridiculously hot conditions osaka 07 is about as hot as i could ever remember a major championship it was ridiculous i mean i i remember that because i going from the stadium to the uh to the bus to take you back to the hotel uh it was literally just the sun was just beating down and you just felt that it was impossible just to sort of walk that 200 meters then i don't run a marathon in the condition so yeah that was almost unbelievable pb of 225 and uh she's feeling good enough to uh just poke her nose out front uh ahead of the big chase group and we had a couple of athletes you remember god it does seem such a long time ago now it's ridiculous it's only last saturday but batoche the mongolian he uh yeah he set the early pace in the men's marathon last saturday off the back of some decent form so one or two athletes not afraid to have a crack off the front sarah klein of australia the two uh there's diva there there's uh two of the australian marathoners just talking to each other taking it easy there and their own pace at the back of that the main field so for them it's it's just a case of just taking it easy seeing how they go for the first part of the marathon and then just coming through when maybe the others are starting to fade a bit at the front in fact if i remember correctly in the in the men's race we had a fun runner leading it for about the first 5k that's right yes there was a mass participation race wasn't there just uh tacked on to the back of the main event lyuk from estonia she's got a best of 240 yeah the fun runner was uh he was quite amusing really because he was he was probably trying to set a lifetime pb for 5k he soon got tired and no move yet no interest in this place just at the moment from edna kipling she's just buried in the pack but an interesting early dynamic in i'm sure you remember that great race well in moscow uh between edna kiplica and valerie straneo and uh well it was it was just one of the great major championship marathons total contrast of course as you've already indicated steve to the um the pacemakers and the the sort of clinical uh element to the big city marathons the championship the times are almost irrelevant it is about the gold silver and bronze and it was just a classic classic duel two years ago we were we were very very lucky to uh to witness that and uh hopefully it will be half as good this time round well the the big city marathons are are out for fast times it's quite simple as that they they depend upon being successful because of the faster times whereas if you get to a championship race and it's the same on the track most of the runners that get fantastic times in the diamond leagues throughout the beginning of the season and the middle of the season they sometimes come to a championship event and then fall foul of the simple fact that there's no pacemaking they can't they're not used to running slow and then having to kick or they're not used to running a different rhythm and sometimes some of the big favorites the fastest in the worlds coming to these championships get knocked out in the heats and we were surprised but i don't see why we're surprised because sometimes tactical running is totally different from all out blasting which some of these some of these races do including the city links and the americans they're all out blast in fact you get people with um pacemaking uh intentions um holding placards saying they're going to run it i don't know 2 30 or they're going to run at 215 and that's the people you chase you chase you you chase a target rather than chasing people yes completely different dynamic here and quite sensibly some of these women just deciding to run at their own pace early on and some good uh good teamwork going on there between diver and klein the two australians their lifetime bets are fairly close together and remember of course any woman finishing in the top 20 gets an a standard which will help him measurably towards their hopeful selection for the olympic games next year let's uh give you a little update raza draz dowskaity as we have a look there at uh sarah klein running alongside sinead diver and the lithuanian drazdale skyty i'll say that a couple of times throughout the morning to try and get to get on top of that pronunciation but she's uh she's just decided to uh to track the early leader there she is in second place the lithuanian 34 years of age been around a long time was uh fifth in the world junior 1500 as we just look at a couple of athletes who've been dropped off the back of the chase group arzapello the peruvian small diminutive figure and actually the lithuanian who was up with the algerian eight salem has now just drifted back towards that chase group where edna kiplight has uh just meandered her way from the middle of the pack just to get some clean running space in front of her eight salem still leading and as we've discussed she's demonstrated comfort in tough sticky conditions so she can't be discounted and we've got this little group that have formed off the back of the main pack with the two australians side by side and we've watched them exchanging a few words but you can see the chase pack has been splintered into two and all three ethiopians and all three kenyans and all three japanese are in that group including mai ito 5'35 she was fourth in nagano this year ran her pb 224 42 so i think anyone steve you know we're not going to be too obsessed about times but 224 42 there's a confirmation of her pb earlier this year that may well be good enough to to get in amongst it because oh yeah it might not be particularly quick no no well we saw the men's race where some of the fastest runners in the world uh were literally having to struggle to run the times of 215 with the winning time in the marathon i mean it's it's it's not a case here of uh going for a fast time it's a case of just uh trying to get through this race in a competitive fashion and we saw gary selassie that young eritrean in that race i mean no one would have given him a chance of winning that race before against the caliber of athletes that were in it from city marathons and yet in the end he was a comfortable winner he was he was celebrating uh well probably for the last two or three kilometers just to give you an indication as to how the times go because it shows you that you know it really isn't about the clock when endurable won in osaka and you probably on the evidence of what we've had so far here this morning this isn't going to be as hot hopefully on behalf of ourselves and the athletes uh but in osaka and arable won in 230 edna kipling has two victories in daegu in 11 that was pretty hot and sticky there was 228 and moscow was 225. so any of these women who've got pbs under 230 and probably more realistically up towards the 225s or 226s or 224s any of them if they run close to their lifetime best could get in the mix and that's what makes these races so fascinating that it's not really about those who can smash out a 219 although of course it would be fabulous if there was a a very fast winning time this is about the gold the silver and the bronze as we see yet another one of these marvelous landmarks queen men shame we haven't had a chance to to have a visit yet steve but there's been too much world-class athletics to enjoy here in the stadium chamber gate there that was one of the major sort of tourist points that people go and see if they come to beijing beijing is a beautiful city not only has it got the historical obviously the historical side of it but some of the uh and i've been keep saying it throughout the champions the actual architecture here the new architecture the new beijing is something to behold they really have uh expanded an incredible rate but they've done it so well beautiful architecture all through the city made up japan there there's three japanese they're does their ito herb team ape um behind her just somewhere in there is the mix is shigatoma so the japanese obviously as we said great tradition there they are just to the left of that picture running as a group wow there you go it's it's the scale of some of the things to visit here that's quite hard to convey isn't it just some of the yeah architecture and culture and the buildings and the land around them are absolutely vast well as i said as they run the marathon they will be going past some of the most beautiful sights but probably the marathons will not appreciate it but look at the size of the scale of some of the streets here closed everything down the marathon getting priority here today and you can see that uh police did incredibly well throughout the whole city still early days that's brazil running well just picking up one or two of these athletes in the early stages of the race just giving you big name checks they're just the left you can see the massive photographer stroke press bus that's if that's having a chance to jump on one of those things you've got the best seat in the house for watching a marathon especially one of the big city marathons and they're just again almost following the uh lee pack here have you i was going to ask you have you ever had a chance to follow a a big race in one of those i've always either been by the side of the course or in the commentary box it looks like an it would be an amazing perspective from which to witness the race yeah i think it'd be fantastic never had the chance no but i mean usually i'm doing what i'm doing now which is sitting in front of the tv watching it like everybody else back at home but yeah if you're doing it you can see there it is the red bus on the side there that will probably track the runners as fast well as much as they can here it's absolutely perfect because look at the size of the road they're actually going down sometimes it gets a bit tricky i've seen it actually having to stop sometimes a bit like uh formula one or or the tour de france they have to pull off to the side if it comes to an area where they can't go through but here i don't think they have any trouble to trouble following this all the way through the uh the marathon course our two very distinct groups the brazilian stuck right between them so too liberg the american 234 pb benitez they're just easing herself ahead of uh everybody else she's running pretty well she was fifth in the south pole of half marathon and seventh in uh santiago de chile in the marathon there so she's got the experience but look at the scale of things here in beijing this is what i tried to sort of like uh explain to people when they never been to the city just come here and have a look at what the city has to offer i think most people get the feeling that china really is a nation crowded but look at this absolutely beautiful the scale of it all really channelment square and then in the background i think that's a forbidden city up there and that really is worth half a day of your time i i had the opportunity to have a look around there on a previous visit to beijing it's absolutely breathtaking when you get up close and have a wander round with a couple of hours to spare and of course beijing will be hosting the winter olympics in 2022 a split site i think some some of the events will be happening up in the mountainous region 150 k's away and some of it will be hosted here in beijing i think they'll be the first city to host the winter and yeah that's the summer games well the other thing is and it is quite amazing and i think emphasizing that fact because you just said it's the winter games i mean you think that it would be hilly here in beijing but look at that this course is as flat as you can get the actual plane below the mountain region is incredibly flat and that's going to be uh a major benefit for these marathons they won't find any major inclines at all on this course so quite interesting dynamic here we've got two very distinct groups at the front and we were watching benitez the brazilian there she is just isolated at the back there back right hand side with lieberg just in front of her and the american and the brazilian are in no man's land between two totally distinct very tightly packed groups here are the leaders with heller kiprop just running on the right-hand side this is lieberg trying to bridge that gap between the two groups and even though you don't get the same benefit in a group as you would do in a cycling context where you're tucking in there is an advantage to just being in touch isn't there yeah i think so i mean it is a it is a comforting fact that you are still with a main group and that you're running comfortably but then you've got to run at your own rhythm i said this yesterday marathon runners and walkers they've got the optimum optimum uh gate as it were i would say that they have to run at for their own stature for their own deck length for their own stride pattern everything and if you're not running at that you're running at someone else's that's the way i look at it so if you're in a group you might not be running at your optimal but someone is and i think sometimes it's better to just drop off of a pace or be in front of a pace and just run your normal relaxed rhythm for a marathon it's essential because you've got to run that uh massive distance and you must make sure that you use as least amount of energy as possible yeah well maybe leigh berg's actually quite happy running on her own having space around her but just quite an unusual dynamic there with two such distinct groups there is hella kiprop second in tokyo earlier this year with that pb of 224 so we know she's quite comfortable in the asian conditions five six four edna kiplight right at the back of that group looking pretty comfortable at the moment and i think that's e2 of the japanese athlete there they've got as i said all three in this group no problems with it's on this side and i think our compatriots on the other side there they are on the nice colors the uh the japanese team uh that fluro plural red we could pick up that pretty easily on the track and we can certainly pick it up very easily in this group it's it's made the identification yeah the early stages of the ten is quite easy hasn't it we've liked the japanese outfits well hey young kim of the people's republic career really going for it they're striding out well part of the gates of the forbidden city i think just uh on the backdrop there there's the camera the uh that we will follow obviously just see to the left of the picture that's the the main camera that we'll see at the head of the pack there is obviously panning in and then we've got the motorbikes following the different groups so it's been really good coverage here of the world championships 1751 so around it just inside 231 pace there so that's pretty much what you would have expected for the early stages nobody's doing anything too outrageous and although it's nice and cool at the moment and uh there's a reason it's a little bit hazy at the moment so it's not as warm as it has been at quarter to eight in the morning on some of the other days of the championship but i think that's quite a sensible pace for the early stages nothing too savage one or two people dropping off the back plenty of time yet to crank it up and watch the group being whittled down long way to go segue there the ethiopian who was third in london this year so obviously one of the big names to watch out for and you're right rob this is early stages they're just surging a little bit now and again just stretching their legs here we go just as i said she obviously realizes she's coming into one of the feeding stations here just getting herself clear making sure that she gets her own particular oops one or two of them dropping their um fluids there was they rushed in a bit too much so i hope they can take it on board temperatures good though probably around about still only around about 22 23 it's a bit sticky humidity probably a little bit higher than normal but uh not much sweating going on which is good i think at the moment it's early stages just 5k but uh not too bad at all oh we're getting a little reminder here of what's on offer around the city for those who have an opportunity to visit people sometimes wonder if athletes take a holiday after a championship and have a look around but usually the airport on the monday morning and monday lunch time is a scene of absolute carnage so any sightseeing the athletes are doing will probably have been done by those who've had the opportunity to finish their events earlier on in the championship i'm just showing this some of the fantastic new new architectural structures in the city itself i mean we're seeing the old beijing this is the new beijing they're showing off there and it was beautiful well that group still tucked nicely together of about 212 or so of the women in the marathon there we are there's the lead list ito but then only a second or so between her and the rest of the other athletes so early days and interesting steve all the kenyans are there all the ethiopians are there and so too the japanese who are just making their presence felt at the front there five three five maya ito maida and shigetomo this is the uh very useful spaniard alessandra aguiar fifth and european championships in 2010 and fifth in moscow she had a really good run there and sephae another one of the expatriated east africans she's gone 235 this year so i think aguirre is definitely one to keep your eye on although she doesn't have as eye-catching a pb as some of the rest with 227 she's a really good major championship performer the spaniard and she's not afraid to run at her own pace and come through late so um we'll try and keep our eye out for agree and see where she can finish or getting amongst it towards the uh back end or second half of the race this is a major road in the city you can see it stretching out almost uh into the distance here this is ding one of the chinese athletes as i said the the main problem with this course is if it is a problem is it's so flat and so straight that it's almost mind-blowing it just goes on and on for the first uh almost 15k really and the athletes like running on the treadmill you don't really see that you're actually making any any inroads into the distance but you are really there you see it's uh flat straight road it really is no twists and turns and nothing to distract you from the fact you've just got to keep your rhythm going five seven six jemima sungong second in chicago second in new york last year won rotterdam a couple of years ago she's got a really good pb 220 and she's gone under 69 minutes for the half marathon not one of the biggest names as far as the kenyans are concerned but they've had quite an interesting team selection i mean they've obviously got an embarrassment of richie's in terms of the caliber they can choose from and we should also mention one of the few europeans we've touched on the lithuanian drazdale skyter who's up in that league group but so too the russian alina proclapa second in the world student games half marathon she's just at the back of that group that's yang gambo of nambia sorry namibia she was just uh leading that group of chasers and the sri lankan she's got a best of 240 for a decent pace being set by these leaders and certainly the likes of any kiplicat running just outside 230 should be feeling pretty comfortable at this kind of pace that's a great shot really from uh i think it must be from one of the city buildings there of the uh the field and you can see this spread out quite quite significantly after the first what is it almost 7k or so only 70 athletes in the race so it looks sparse compared to some of the city marathons but uh these are class athletes and they know exactly the reason we're gonna be running at the japanese marathon contingent are moving to the four maida is in the front she was eighth in the japanese ten thousand meter championship last year and hopefully they'll be real interest in athletics at the moment in japan because they're obviously gearing up for tokyo 2020 which will roll around quicker than we would care to care to ponder now as soon as one major championship finished and the next one that looms on the horizon 166 is benitez the brazilian who was caught between those two groups and i think still is running somewhere between the two big packs with now one two three four five about five or six athletes sandwiched in between the two groups hate selling again just being picked up from the back by the lead camera i think from algeria some interesting characters just following that we just saw a quick glimpse of uh ottawa from mongolia 33 years of age former mongolian record 66th in the olympics back in 2004 she was just traveling around quite nicely in that second group so all sorts of uh talent following the main group here you can see this spread out that's that second oil i suppose you would call that the second group just what is it two or two hundred maybe also 300 meters behind the lead group then as robert said the athletes in between are in a bit of no man's land but they're running their own pace no no stress yet i don't think for anybody 25 minutes into a marathon anyway well there shouldn't be anyway but uh they're running their own pace letting these athletes just uh go along at their own rhythm in front they just i wonder what it is steve about japanese runners even in those ten thousand meters you could almost guarantee and the five thousands actually going through the heats the men and the women it was always the japanese if it was slow that went straight to the front yeah i think it's in their nature i think they they realize that they have not been unkind to them i think they realize that if it comes down to a bit of a sprint that perhaps that's not their strongest department and i think they're they're very clever in that respect they obviously they think well you know we're going to try and make this a respectable race and that's what they're doing here they're making this a respectable race they're not slowing it down so it becomes a bit of a a last half dash for those that have got the strength and ability they're keeping it at a respectable rhythm same they did on the track um and it paid dividends really because some of them actually qualified for finals whereas normally they wouldn't have done that so here the japanese in tradition that they normally have they go to the front and they just worked hard now there was a little bit of pushing there it was five six two cheb kesho just got a little nudge in the back from tiggis tufa talking about their sort of middle left of frame and they've got to concentrate here they just went round what was for them a left-hand turn as a guy just comes up onto the shoulder of costa portuguese and the spaniard both going well aguirre as we were saying did well at the european championships a few years ago and i had a great run in moscow last year so we'll we'll watch out she's she's uh just on the right-hand side of those chasers just around about 50 or 60 meters behind this group but you you just got a feeling there in that group when they went around that corner a little bit of pushing a little bit of shoving edna kipling fell in daegu at a water station on route to winning the first of her two world titles but they do need to concentrate when they're running that closely together well i think the trouble is if you run so long in a straight line that when you come to a corner you know your legs are not used to it and there's a little bit of wobbling going on there that's what happened there they went around the corner and they didn't realize i don't think sometimes that they were running so close to one another and yes they've got to be careful they came into a feeding station there they just grabbed a few drinks a few bottles go on the floor sometimes they can trip over that and as you said you know even the favorites can fall foul of the simple things of just trying to keep up right during a race well some of the athletes theirs including the king is taking a bit of water on board and throwing it over him so they're getting a little hot now conditions you know i'd say about as good as you're going to get in beijing for a marathon i think any hotter than this there we are there's the chasing two and they're closing really we up just uh those fluoro socks picking us uh distinctive aren't they making a fairly distinctive for us yes that's right there's the misters some of them just trying to get into that uh area where they can just get a bit of refreshing spray from that mister and before coming back into the pack not many actually took the opportunity so it's not as warm as perhaps it was with some of the events including the 50k walk and the 20k walks with men and women interesting to see the two europeans the lithuanian and the russian were just uh drifting off the back of that group astor seve another one of the east africans now representing the asian nation so the russian just at the back there prakapova and the lithuanian drazdale skyter just maybe struggling a little bit at the back they were both uh well certainly the lithuanian was up at the front when the algerian eight salem was setting the early pace so the two of them trying to get in amongst it here with the might of the east africans and the japanese athletes who are still quite happy dictating the early rhythm [Music] yeah look at that they're spread out across the road just uh running their own speed i think obviously with the good thing about sorry go back to uh spirits over i think this is just chasing i'm not sure where she is i would say the chasing group this is not a group this is an individual and it's about uh 30 minutes or so she must be between the two groups i think i think she is and i think she's running just behind the two who are closing the quickest on that lead group which are philomena costa and then the uh the the bright sock wearing spaniard alessandra aguirre and you can just see the portuguese in the spaniard just behind the car that's following the chase group and the the other athlete we were just focusing on there is also isolated but perhaps doing her best to uh to close that gap as well the crowd started to pick up a bit here sunday morning as i said before they uh they have really come out and enjoyed these world championships there we go here we are there's costa aguile they are just chasing and i think they're actually closing maybe on that lead group which is uh good local director focusing in on lin-hee he she's won 20 marathons i think so she's a she's a real experienced marathon brother really as we know and she was uh trying to look through her cv as it were she was of six of the asian games so one of the top chinese athletes really may be finding this place pretty comfortable at the moment as most of them would do really i think the the uh the likeliest chinese athlete to feature in the top 20 is kiplicat just uh just now out of shot motion to one of her compatriots says she wanted to move out towards the left-hand side of the road changquin ding should in theory be the top finishing chinese athlete sir to the left 5-6-4 ding was 16th in the world cross in guyang here in china back in march and had a really good run as aguirre just uh starts to move away from costa she's much quicker than her on paper and i think aguer definitely wants to get on the back of this lead group there they are 7-3-4 that's uh prokopieva of russia she's got a personal best of 229 so she's comfortable with this place fifth in hamburg the russians so she's literally at the back of that league group but uh looking very comfortable in here you say yeah i think rob you mentioned she is one to watch she knows her own pace she's got a heavily strapped knee though that's the only worry uh but maybe she started off fairly sort of like easily just to get herself into it and now she's moving through she's almost there isn't she she's almost done it as they've gone past the 9k mark i think the spaniard has managed to bridge that gap there just uh taking the lead at the moment she as we said 2012 this year third in osaka and third in the uh send out half marathon so she's and she dropped down actually to a a seven mile race and did very well there so she's obviously getting the preparation almost perfect for this race they've definitely got to be counted as major dangers for a medal the japanese they've got a good history as far as this championship is concerned junko asari took the gold back in 1993 and hiromi suzuki won in 1997 and they've got a whole array of silver and bronze medals we've got a bronze in the moscow with fukushi coming home in 227 so in conditions like this the japanese with such a love of distance running and marathons in particular they've definitely got to be counted as potential medalists towards the business end of the race just uh just to confirm the three who have tried to close the gap from the chase group to this big league group we've got agreea who's almost definitely going to rejoin then philomena costa and the other athlete now in the distance the second one you can see because aguirre is now on the back of that group katarina belasova she's one of the slovakians and what celebration there must be in the slovakian team after mate off managed to front walk not front run we did say run a couple of times yesterday which is hard not to old habits die hard mate off was the front walker who uh hit the lead after 800 meters of the 50k and then hung on for the rest of the 49.5 kilometers so berasova who's trying to close down on that lead group perhaps taking some uh inspiration from her compatriot so aguirre's managed to tag back on as the japanese continue to set the pace well the japanese as you said rob great tradition he's looking through the statistics they've won it twice they've been second five times and they've been third twice as well so that's that's a pretty good card to have isn't it really scorecard to have coming into a marathon for a country the two indian runners here repeating running together i think this is sing and uh jason [Music] that was the group that you can just see right at the very top well in the previous shot you could just see right at the very top of your screen there somewhat 300 350 meters adrift on their own they're determined to keep this ticking along the japanese athletes we'll be getting the 10k split shortly there you go as you say it rob perfect 35 32 yeah so they're still 35 32 just working that out it's still around about 2 30 just over so it's fairly sensible yeah anybody's race at the moment yep it is great idea the marathon is to have a like a loop that they can just literally push their arm through and grab their drink as they go to the feeding stations rather than just trying to grab a slippery bottle and the japanese took put advantage of that ethiopians though just passing maybe a few comments to one another here and maybe a few drinks or just talking to one another about the pace drinks being passed around here by the teams just making sure that fluid intake is still important although i keep saying it's still it's still relatively cool it is 23 24 degrees so they must keep the fluids in first time for us to see mara de barber of ethiopia there she is 343 just taking a bit of fluids on board fastest woman in the world this year with a sub 220 recorded here in china she's running on the far right hand side of the picture as you look at it and the three ethiopians i think the reason she was talking over her shoulder as we look at the chase group with ding that classy chinese athlete who was 16th in the world cross and yan gambo who was fourth in the commonwealth games back in india and that was sweltering as well in the in delhi perhaps one of the reasons to do it the barber was talking to sega and tufa was to make sure they could share the drinks and they've now settled back in to the pack as the japanese including my ito who checks her watch just uh continue to dominate the early pace here nothing to separate this group of course pocket paver trying to hang on to the back of that group aguirre as we saw there had managed to bridge the gap so those are the leaders and uh well so we're coming up to what a quarter of the way through the race and we've got a big group of around about 15 16 17. three europeans in there that's good to see the lithuanian the russian and the spaniard but still the might of east africa on display flexing their muscles here and all of these women certainly most of them should be pretty comfortable at this pace so i wonder whether they'll just continue in this vein as costa now without the assistance of aguer who's already made that jump to the lead group has to try and do it on her own with beresova back down the road behind her slovakian also isolated ahead of the big following group but uh yeah this is a hard ask isn't it i think it is difficult if you just lose concentration and uh just lose the possibility of running with a group of four or five what they're doing here rather than running on your own i think it's uh from from a mental perspective it's a lot easier to be in a group um you don't seem to have to worry about you know how you're feeling you can literally just sort of let yourself drift for a while i think and that's what you can do in a group whereas if you're on your own the concentration levels go up and notch and it can wear you down a little bit even in training if you're out on your own doing a hard session i know for a fact it's it's harder than doing it with a group of people i don't know why socially it's uh it's not i suppose something which you can explain but it is a lot easier i think so if you're in a group even though it's a race i think that it just relieves the tension a bit you don't feel so stressed and that's why i think running behind as they are costly just see a look just literally no more than what 10 15 meters behind just behind the two bikes actually you can't really see if she's just running on her own she must be desperately trying to get back to this group we just can't do it at the moment yeah she's not too far away camera's focusing in on sultan haydart she's kind of come into this group well she's she's never left it but she's been right at the back the former ethiopian started out as a race walker actually as costa tries to follow suit with aguirre and make that last jump of 20 25 meters to that lead group haydart has got a best inside 225 the ethiopian now racing for turkey she was third in rome a couple of years ago and she's just uh tucked into this group but she's definitely there and has the kind of time on paper to get in amongst the mix well good one of the good results from her looking through her um result she is that she was 12th in dubai if you if you run a marathon in dubai in that sort of heat and you know you probably come here thinking that you're hoping it's probably going to be a lot hotter than it is unfortunately it's not so she probably would have done a lot better in intense heat but uh as i said before this is not too bad i don't think matters change in a strange way this group of rob was saying about 15 of the women have been together for some time maybe one or two joining them one or two dropping off and then there's been another group the peloton or whatever you want to call it just behind by about 300 meters or so almost doing a similar thing in their own way there they are just you can just see them about 300 meters or so back there and costa perhaps maybe one or one or two of the lone athletes between the two groups it might only be her and certainly the last time the camera's focused back it was katharina paresseva the slovakian she's agonizingly close costa you almost think without expending too much energy there she is just find that last 10 meters and reattach yes she's doing it i mean it's very slow but she is doing it literally inch by inch catching them up and the bikes because of that the the following bikes with the cameras are just behind that lead group that's why we get this great back shot of the league group really because the bikes now are literally almost a meter or so behind them one of the other things that uh interesting i only read it the other day about the the cars they're hybrid um and the reason for that is they don't give off any fumes um to the athletes and you get hyper sensitive when you run you probably realize that same as everybody else and you do if you're following something you know like a a car that's uh just giving off a little bit of huge you can you can literally taste it almost and i think it was interesting to read that they're using hybrid cars here so they're battery operated and so they're not giving off any fuel which is good i'm not sure about the motorbikes i think they're battery operated but they're not they're not that close to the athletes sometimes attention to detail there that was just a quick glimpse of beresova the slovakian and it can't be long before costa hones interview there she is just running inside the motorbike so she's almost she's almost there it's it's literally seven or eight meters and my goodness me she's worked hard to get back there well it's taken her about 3k 2 or 3k to do it she's not quite there rob tantalizingly close let's hope there's not a spurt on from the lead group again but uh now i think once she's in that group she can relax a little bit and just uh just take the tension down a notch for the first time in a little while we don't have a an arrow formation with three japanese in the lead ito and maid are still there but chip kesho just uh poked her nose out front just a reminder eunice kowa third in paris a couple of years ago second in amsterdam she now represents bahrain and there are the highest of the chasers in that group good running from burle she's the quickest of the americans and uh beta nyan gambo the namibian who just missed the medal in the commonwealth games she's there and two of the chinese athletes including chang quinn ding who was 16th in the world cross and won the sean gwing marathon earlier this year inside 227 so some decent athletes in the chasers and uh they spread out just temporarily here the lead group just to make sure everybody gets the required refreshments and the good news from a portuguese and a neutrals perspective is that philomena costa of portugal has indeed at last managed to reattach herself to this lead group just off the back there i thought i could see her getting a sponge right up there but she's still got two meters to go but she's right behind edna forget and this woman really is in no man's land katarina burress of a pb at 236 so she's probably running inside that pace at the moment and uh well so we've seen aguirre reattach we've seen costa just about get there one or two meters to go can the slovakian also manage to uh make that jump it's a she's got a long way to uh to claw back if she's going to get there good to see berla running well she suffered from a cancer scare back in 2010 where she lost part of the hamstring of her leg and there was worries there that it was going to spread but she's actually in full uh recovery from that and it's great to see her back running at this sort of level we tend to think that athletes are superhuman and they don't get ill but uh we saw that didn't we in aries merit in the hurdles yes she's he's on his way back to have a kidney transplant so good luck to him um and i know some other athletes one of the athletes used to run against steve scott had a similar cancer scan he's hopefully now fully recovered yeah it's we are human and you do have to go through these things sometimes but it's great to see when you come back and take part again in a competition so good luck to berna in this well look at the red vest here we're confusing isn't it if we didn't have the names on really but uh they're wearing their team kit and we sometimes think that sometimes the tink it's getting a bit confusing i'm not only being sort of uh selfish here as a commentator it is sometimes difficult but it's been a great to innovation to have the names put on the uh the front of the athletes bibs and they're all numbers used to be the case with just having numbers back in front and to be honest it's very difficult if you're doing commentary to uh to quickly look down and look up again by the time you do that sometimes the race is over in a uh in a sprint and particularly in the middle of distance race a move can be made and you've missed it so it's great that the international uh athletic federation are deciding to make these changes and uh it's good for people back at home because you can actually see who they are by just looking at the names it's good [Music] well that group really hasn't done much really has it just spread across the uh the road and been doing its rhythm now for nearly three quarters an hour four europeans now there rosdale skyter the russian proca paver good work from those women especially the likes of costa to finally make that jump back up to join aguirre it looks as if the other groups are actually starting to catch up again here i think this group is slowing down a little bit and the sort of like the pace that the japanese were setting earlier has dropped off a bit you can see they're spacing out nicely letting these athletes the chasing group bernading and sophia to uh come through okay and wang well that's uh spreading off a bit there these are actually almost uh using burlap as a pacemaker now to pull themselves back they're about they're about 300 meters or so just you see this you see the the motor bike flashing lights there that's the group that's chasing with beressova just ahead of them so perhaps she'll get some company as the american burler continues to push the pace on a little bit i've just watched the russian there she's been right at the back there of that group and hasn't moved quite happy just to tag along for the ride she won nagano last year she's gone inside 230. so she'll be running towards the top of her capability as far as her pb's concerned but clearly still feeling good enough to be with this lead group and what a quiet championship the russians have had very very low key apart from shibenkov in the hurdles uh the goal there he's probably the only one yeah i can't think of anybody else obviously been they've actually had a very very quiet championship shigetomo winner of osaka a couple of years ago she was 78 from the olympics in london once again deciding to uh hit the front as beresseva the slovakian still on her own and perhaps that chase group behind her with the three chinese athletes and berla the american perhaps they will begin to close you can see as steve was saying the flashing motorbike is now just out of shot the slovakian doing her best they are closing and because of that i don't know whether this group is slowing down but three japanese athletes there are deciding to move ahead there's a little bit of a gap opening up between them and this group you see there they go moving ahead and because of that the chasing groups are closing in on the main group here just that sort of slight swaying style that she's got with the chief there i think just [Music] well it would be brilliant for the slovakia and if she could rejoin she's been on her own for even longer than uh costa and aguirre but she's still got a long way to go just watched the three japanese they've got company up there hai song kim from the people's republic of korea in the kind of distinctive royal blue vest there she is second from the left-hand side runs with that incredibly low arm action hardly moves her arms up at all she won pyeongchang earlier this year she's the north korean champion over five and ten thousand meters uh 14th in moscow so she's got a good pedigree the korean so three japanese and the korean setting the pace but still the specter of the east africans looms large and is there a special run in the legs of alessandro aguirre this year for the spaniards it's amazing how the time ticks away we're not too far off getting an hour on the board and surely this large group can't stay together all the way up to 30 35k they could do i guess but you suspect once we get towards the second half of the race the class acts the likes of hella kiprop second in tokyo this year will begin to start thinking about winding it up a little bit better so but she's got that sort of like looking down stance i don't know whether she's uh she's really worried and she's trying to concentrate on just looking down the road because she doesn't want to look up and see where that group is in front of her but you can see behind though that group of four now are starting to close her down things would be a godsend for really in a way because that means that she's got some company pulling her towards the main group she keeps looking up but she doesn't want to look up too much do you want to see how far they are in front sometimes you just want to know that you are closing but if you look up all the time and they're pulling away that's disheartening isn't it yes she's not making the same inroads into the lead group as costa and aguirre did the crowd's starting to come out now taking their photographs as the women wind their way through the city very green city actually beijing surprisingly so it's got it's got so many parks and so many trees throughout the whole of the city yeah it's not what you expect when you arrive is it and actually they've got quite good cycle lanes i know there's some uh motorized sort of scooters if you like but as far as running is concerned in this city it's quite good you've got plenty of space you're not you're not having to traffic dodge as you would be in some major cities elsewhere in the world it's just the heat well you came back from one run rob and um suffering badly i had to go for a lie down i was so hot let's hope these women don't suffer in the same way there's the 15k time 53.20 [Applause] pretty consistent to be honest just around about mid 230 just creeping up to 231 it's been sensible and it's been comfortable and that means we should in theory touchwood get a very interesting second half of the race because a lot of the women especially the ethiopians and the kenyans in this group are currently on times alone running well within themselves well having said that though the winning time of the men's marathon was it 215 i think it was 215 something and that would mean that uh you know most of those men were way over their personal best yes it wasn't quick no 212 sorry 212 it was yeah the winner and second place 213 and another one 2 13 30. yeah so they were running way below their you know their uh threshold really or way above it i should say in terms of time well and we should make the point if we're talking about the times gabriele selassie the eritrean the teenager 2 12 28 a time that was almost not quite almost 10 minutes slower than dennis cameto's pb which happens to be the world record and he couldn't even make it to the finish so it showed you last saturday that it isn't about the times are arguably from memory steve we've seen so much athletics since last saturday now i think it's cooler at this time today than it was during the men's marathon i remember it being very very warm last saturday hot hotter than it is now no it was because i mean we had uh i don't know but you can't see back at home but we've got a makeshift uh sunshade here in the stadium but i remember doing the men's marathon we had to duck underneath that because it was so hot almost all the way through the race yes so this is better could run this from uh serena burler ding the very good chinese cross-country runner with sellotape almost across her belly button i haven't seen that before i've seen the tape on legs and so on but she's going well at the moment and here's a confirmation that we have the three japanese the three ethiopians good run by the north korean costa and aguirre have made their way up onto that group so representation from the european nations among the leaders [Applause] and you would have thought that at some stage these four might begin to close in on beresova of slovakia who has been in no man's land for quite some time and is still around 17 or 18 seconds of drift of that lead group another glimpse as to the sights and the sounds and the culture available in this ancient proud city well we've not been short of food have we really rob and drink actually if we're being honest we've had a great time here the the actual setup is very good for uh for most of the media covering this event we're very close to the stadium it's not a big effort for us to go backwards and forwards all the time and uh accommodation is absolutely fantastic but the actual ability just to grab something to eat quickly with the beautiful sort of like street stores and small markets and restaurants around the area it's been very good indeed struggled sometimes at these championships really but not this time around yeah it's been brilliantly organized now for the first time someone's drifted off the back there i think i can't be certain because we haven't had a close-up as we uh watch five six two that's kesho coming up onto the shoulder of the north korean hai song kim i think eunice kowa who sounds kenyan and is but now represents bahrain i think she has just begun to be dropped by this group when we get a when we get a slightly elevated position you'll see she it could be something of nothing yeah she may have gone for a drink but for the first time we've seen an athlete come off the bat she's the eighth fastest in the world this year she's got a pb in the 221 there she is in the top of picture i just wonder whether she's running into some problems it is difficult to tell from here but i think that is the bahrainian who's now gone off the back more importantly though i think this group now is actually closing and they've gone past and i think now are moving ahead towards chasing that uh main group down first over i think it was it just back there maybe they've passed okay so it is one of the bahrainians it may be cepheid rather than kirwa we just need to get that perspective of her in relation to that lead group it is definitely one of the bahrainians so that wouldn't be quite so much of a surprise because her lifetime best is 236. so uh we have got our first casualty from this lead group but as you said steve if burler the american and ding from china managed to keep going as they are and they're in the distance with the flashing lights on the motorbike maybe the ranks will be swelled here in this lead group but at some stage someone is going to have to just start beginning to wind this up a little bit as we head towards the hour mark of the race just looking beyond that second group there doesn't seem to be much beyond that group in other words there's not another chasing group by the looks of it so that if this main group stays that it is and maybe the only other sort of contingent these four here get up to them then uh at the halfway point most of the big names will be there really you've got to give it to berlin i think she's been doing all the main work there at the front of that group of fort to close the gap and actually i was watching in the distance eve i think bearish over the slovakian was swept aside by that group i i think they caught her and went past her so that's disappointing for the slovakian but good running by the american and the chinese will certainly give the crowd reason to uh get involved and cheer and speaking of that what a moment it's going to be in the stadium tonight when the men's four by one presentation is made there's a little uh guest runner there just uh caught his jacket off and running in the back of shot alongside the bahrainian i'm sure she really appreciated that um chinese men silver in the four by one finished in third the americans would disqualify that nightmare changeover with mike rogers on the on the anchor leg but uh i've rarely heard noise like it as we experienced in the stadium last night when the when the chinese quartet was celebrating first of all they were on the podium and then suddenly the news came the americans were out and bronze became silver the noise was incredible and the chinese will create some atmosphere for them tonight on their middle presentation yeah it was it was a staggering performance from china in that really i mean they beat canada i mean canada one of the favorites there to get a medal easily and the chinese were in front of them you know by right after the finish and then as you say rob the disqualification of that uh tragic uh american team really i led them now to have to grab the silver medal and uh well the crowd just i don't think the crowd could actually believe it they just did not stop clapping no one moved did they no one went home they stood there for they everybody stayed in the stadium for hours after the event almost it was it was brilliant especially when you're bearing when you bear in mind they had to set an asian record just to get into the final but as we said last night it showed you apart from sue who who is a chinese superstar broken 10 seconds this season made the final of the individual 100 meters apart from him uh they were a quartet of slick changeovers rather than individual stars and it's the sum of the total rather than the individual excellence that counts in the relay and that was they were a perfect demonstration of that it was it was a great run and then quickly going back to the marathon you're just seeing there some of the bike riders just in the in the far side shot there obviously giving some encouragement to their team members they realized where they're going to have to be in order to shout at them and that just shows you this pace though that they're actually running it difficult to see that sometimes in television you think they're just jogging along but they really are running fast but doula who was in that group is suffering badly now and coming out the back fairly quickly look at this this is uh this is almost a little uh running train going on here girl up dink wang just come to through now i think maybe to catch up that lead group they're about just see them behind they're about 150 meters behind posing all the time yeah good work by the american it's almost like a mini fartlek session going on between the four of them trying to close the gap and sustain their rhythm well you can see it's not an easy job to close the roads down here in beijing you can imagine and they've done a great job the city must be coming to a standstill because you can see not only is the road on this side close but the road on the other side is goes as well and that's been used by some of the coaches and maybe some of the friends of the athletes too to follow them over the uh part of the bridge here that was a spanish flag being waved there for the benefit of alessandra aguilera who is uh right now up behind kesho doula is 10 seconds off that group now yeah she's dropping back i think so she's going to lose ground there she is and you can see though the other group though chasing they're coming a bit uh closer to the curb they're coming around a bit more of a straight line [Music] just moving them through and is that a little gap developing with one of the other athletes just beginning to come off the back two or three meters opening up we need to get a closer glimpse to confirm exactly who that is as we look at doula and on the right hand side well serena burler is doing a cracking job and she's dragging the chinese back into the mix chang ding and also wang running well she was 26th in daegu qui in wang she is the second best of the chinese competitors i think aguirre is looking good yes she is the spaniard in the loom the luminous socks she's run her own race to get up to that group and now she's running it very comfortably indeed mind you so that so is kipper get there also she's very relaxed at the back of that group just abiding her time and she's in the middle there aerial shot yet again coming now to the new river area of the course what's going on though is it really gone over the hour now aaron almost five minutes into this marathon conditions still not warming up i think this is good it's probably about 22 23 maybe maybe back to 23 degrees here and that group of four they are definitely closing the american is running really well all of them are checking their watches now they're just uh clicking off the the k's as they go through the japanese athletes that have been literally just uh at the front almost all the time well they just caught doula now this group burlap doing a great job for the chinese athletes as you said pulling them through ding and wang there just tucked in they will catch them there's no question if they don't accelerate this group of three or four just behind we'll catch she's looking really good the american her cadence is strong good leg speed as we watch the lithuanian duran style skyter just trying to maintain her rhythm in that lead group i'd rather scotty's the taller i can't really miss her really she's almost ahead and shoulders above the other athletes there but she's running well doula though look she's uh she's kept in touch with his group of three dropped off the back but if she's gonna be with this group of three now she might to find herself being pulled back the ebb and flow of a marathon i mean sometimes you know when you're out there running you can obviously feel bad at one stage and then for some reason rather you pull yourself through it you start feeling good again and then it can work the other way so ebbing and flowing even that group at the front there they're gonna some of them are gonna start feeling as if they're uh suffering again and then the other's gonna start feeling good again a better sober we just saw she was back there being caught by uh she and she pulled those other chinese through and i think she is drifting off the back of that group of four she's you count the motorbike she's on the second bike behind the lead group some more 300 meters or so now adrift of the main group and about 200 meters of drift of that group of four that passed us some time ago good to see a fair smattering of people out lining the course steve obviously you made the point when we were watching the walks yesterday that the walks were in a restricted area of the olympic park so it was only really coaches and close friends and family as uh burler once again continues to pour on the pace she's doing a really good job here but it's brilliant to see so many people out early i mean what is it it's just gone 25 to 9 local time on a sunday morning so most of these people you would think on a usual sunday if they've got any sense of having their having their eggs and bacon or whatever they eat and getting up and having a lazy sunday morning but they clearly decided to come out and get a glimpse of some of the world's top marathon runners and they're creating a good atmosphere here on the streets of beijing yeah it's been in the stadium they've been a very knowledgeable crowd they've appreciated that ethics athletics and i think that's that's interesting because um to be honest i've thought that uh you know they've been so well say alienated but they haven't seen much uh athletics apart from the olympics really um and now they've come and they really appreciate everything javelin throne they've gone mad at sprinting they've gone berserk at um it's good it's good atmosphere here and that's what the athletes need they love the atmosphere of a good stadium and uh the birds nest itself it's a fantastic stadium well it's full to capacity like it has been a couple of times here great stadium to be involved with i've been really surprised how much they've enjoyed the field events as you say the throws the long jump they've been over there even when it hasn't been a chinese athlete they've been i mean i remember for instance last night when uh blank of lasik great to see the croatian coming back to something like the form that took her to the world title and an olympic silver back here actually when she jumped what was it 205 and ended up losing it on count back to tia heli but she's had a nightmare with injuries and last night she cleared two meters i think she went over 201 for the first time over two meters in years and the raw when she went over to secure that silver medal you would have thought she was chinese they were really really knowledgeable last night and they were up for it yeah it was a good night yep yep i mean they enjoy it here the fireworks go off sometimes they've got massive screens around the stadiums where they flash up people in the crowd and ask them to hug and kiss each other luckily that hasn't been us yet rob so but yeah the whole thing is is is the atmosphere here has been great i mean i keep saying it but it has been a great championships and they deserve praise they really do right a little bit of an update on this lead group the athlete who we've been unable to identify who's just drifted off the back you can see her and as she goes backwards she is soon going to be caught by serena burle the american who survived that cancer scare she has dragged wang of china and ding of china back in the mix and it's sultan haydar the turkish athlete former ethiopian who was third in rome a couple of years ago and second in paris really really good runner inside 225 at her best but her time with the lead group is over unless she can tag on to the back of burlap and i think the american is doing a fantastic job of trying to come back to the group as it salem the algerian who set the early pace she too just for the first time becomes detached from this group so one by one steve as we head towards the halfway point we're losing hey dart of turkey it looks like we're going to lose salem of algeria from that league group but serena burleigh the american and the two chinese wang and ding look as though they're going to come back to this group well good really interesting development good run for bernar i mean it's been a solo effort no help at all from the two chinese is one of the locals just trying to keep up i mean i'm afraid he's been dropped off the back but yeah i mean that's a good run for burler she's really doing all the hard work to get back to this pack and you can see now as you say getting up to the halfway point it's starting to get to a stage where not so much the pace but the conditions maybe and the pace itself those two combined are having an effect on that group well if birla can pull back that's great because she has been running now if she does that at a pace which is faster than that lead group obviously to catch it up so once she gets back into that then she can maybe relax or she might just want to keep running through here she comes closing the gap rapidly now and the pace steve just as birla checks her watch what are we 19 at 20k they've been very very consistent it's high 230 or very low 231 pace that's why there are so many still in contention and that is why as that group just splits for the first time looks like there's been a little injection of pace there after the 20k point but that's why the likes of berla have been able to get back in touch but i just oh no perhaps it's not an injection of paste this it's simply a little bit of acceleration to ensure they get their drinks and you can see the american in the distance eight salem definitely is moving off the back the algerian and it won't be too much longer before burler and wang and ding managed to attach themselves to the front of this group but uh 230 low 231's so many of these women comfortable at this pace and that's given the american the chance to bridge the gap yeah i think maybe also in terms of race plan maybe most of the africans kenyans and the ethiopians have probably thought well we'll wait to the halfway point before we start doing anything and i think that that's probably the issue here there they're quite sensibly taking the first half as easy as possible before they start getting competitive and it was only the japanese really that kept the rhythm going and now they're starting to spread out a little bit you can see now we go across the track ethiopians on the right of our picture kenya's in the middle japanese still there but at the moment now the group is starting to sprint up and burlap just behind as always clawing her way back here she comes ding and wang just behind the two chinese athletes well they haven't helped her at all really but they don't need to if that's all they have to do just to to get themselves back into this lead group tagging along for the ride and suarez salem has definitely been passed by the american and the two chinese so it could be a tough second half of the race for the algerian three kenya's now just grouping over the far side there they are four kids i switched obviously with the reigning champion getting the wild card to come into this get the cat so yep again just uh easing themselves and that's good because that means hopefully that burler who has done all that work we'll be catching pretty soon now she's still got a bottle though she's obviously suffering a little bit and obviously wants to keep the water going as long as she can there she's still grabbing that bottle well even at this pace steve she's operating outside pb shape so she should in theory be relatively comfortable she was third in seoul a few years ago so she's one of those athletes who's okay maybe not comfortable but competent in uh you know in hot sticky conditions so the signs are good for the american it's a positive run and certainly if they if her and the two chinese athletes end up running well they owe her a pat on the back because as you said she's done all the work for them they've just tagged along for the ride yeah yeah it's been a ride of about 5k or so and she's done a good job well they should hit halfway very very soon the american has ditched the drinks bottle she's running well she's in good rhythm you can see that she's running faster than this lead group that's the way you're gonna look at it she's caught them up so if she wants to she could take it easy for a while or maybe she just wants to keep that rhythm going different what sometimes i said before pace judgment in a marathon is very very tricky it really is just a mere increase slightly slightly in your pace can cause problems later on in the race and equally if you don't run fast enough that can be a problem as well so you have to judge it it's a it's a science and not an exact science because things can vary while you're running the marathon obviously feelings conditions even lack of fluids if you can't take enough on or too much if you can take too much on all these problems can occur so halfway good running nice and steady it's mid to high 230 and they've done the easy bit as they say now the race proper can begin and as we've reiterated a couple of times most of these women with a pace on course for just around or under 231 will be comfortable at this pace well the average bit per k we get some of this information sometimes it doesn't come through all that often but the average bit that we've been told is it's 335 so for the overall pace up until now 335 for each k but the last split was uh 356 so they actually slowed over that last year that might be the feeding station or that might be the fact that they are slowing a little bit but that's allowed i think uh for the american obviously burler to come through now and uh close this group down five six four just running on the left of frame there with that very distinctive lovely effective long loping stride edna kiplicat the defending champion still no move from her well really other than one or two dropping off the back of this group like eight salam and sultan hajar of turkey there really hasn't been uh too much change here since the very beginning just watching to see where the american and the two chinese athletes are it's quite different already rob they're there there's berla oh yeah they've bridged the gap yep they are that was uh that was a quick close-up after that feeding station i think they've moved up very quickly indeed and they're just tucking themselves in nicely now that's suffering badly i think here she's dropping rapidly off the pace so it's going to be a hard half marathon for her over the latter stages of this race looks good she's just out of frame at the moment on the far left of shop but some of the other women will also be feeling pretty comfortable what an achievement that would be no woman has ever won three world marathon titles at the moment kipler gets tied on two with catherine ender raber enderoba came close to three she finished second behind paula in 2005. so the silver was sandwiched in between her two titles in paris in 2003 and then in osaka so a little piece of history on the line for edna kipligan she's on the far right of frame 564 but there's still a long way to go and there are some classy women in this field who will feel they've got a great chance to challenge the defending champion so she won't have this all her own way acosta who we saw early on moving up before berlin did another chase group through to the uh through to the leader she's still looking very comfortably there there's costa green green uh shorts with the white top looking very good after working her way back she's looking at burler i think they're now and uh what are you doing here exactly i mean you know where have you come from real contrast to the way this championship marathon panned out in moscow when strangeo went to the front after six or seven k this is a completely different dynamic and i wonder steve at what stage a few of these women will start to say as we watch her hey dars off the back she's she's suffering now the former runner up in paris i wonder at what stage a few of those athletes in that huge league group will say right listen enough's enough we need to start winding this up and dropping a few of these athletes because there are too many here in this group i i think it's much like the track races uh i think they'll probably take it as as easy as possible just see if the actual race itself has any effect the distance and the effort on the other athletes around them and then they probably wait until maybe i don't know i don't know getting on to what 35k maybe before they start thinking about maple tactics because wait until then let the race actually have its effect and do most of the damage after that use tactics as it were to actually produce the goods so i don't think they want to do too much now although you know every time i say that one of the other ethics moves to the front and obviously you just see here chicatomo just moving ahead of the group japanese i think have just done all they had to do to keep the momentum going they haven't made any big surge as it were for about three or four kilometers they've just whenever the pace has dropped just got to the front and just ticked it along even more cameras focusing on sultan haydart and the likes of lee shan duller who've been dropped by this group good crowds good crowds around the city when you think that all you see really is about 10 seconds or so of athletes passing you get like the tour de france you know you spend all your day there waiting waiting waiting and then just whoosh they go past and that's it whereas we're lucky we can see all of it on the on the television it's great to see crowds out supporting the marathon yes it's been really well supported this event good to see and you you were talking about the traffic steve i wouldn't want to be stuck in that at the moment they're laying on a world-class marathon here the clear roads for the athletes but uh for anyone else perhaps who didn't realize the world championship was on they've got a nightmare sunday morning not the right day to go across town no no they're just uh keeping that beautiful sort of like style of hers going low arm carriage head movement negligible just keeping it to a minimum that's maybe putting a bit of an effort on here but not much there's that group coming i'm not coming right they were drifting off a little bit now the doula is starting to sort of maybe regain a little bit of form he just behind was the was one it was in that group of four wasn't she until the uh the efforts of burlap took the other two away weighing a ding so she's the third of the chinese marathon runners suffering a little bit there at the back shigamoto they're just pushing it on now it's starting to sort of indian file a little bit here one hour 22 so if we're on for a 230 maybe this is sort of getting to this stage where the actual distance itself is having effect on the whippet [Applause] let's do that and there's uh heat just checking watches just seeing the pace there you go well this group pulling away no question about that and you can see the ethiopians tucked in nicely just behind they've been there all the time just biding their time waiting waiting waiting [Music] yes it's quite unusual actually yeah when you think how dominant they've become in recent years just one solo bronze and that was for a sellafest merger back in berlin in 2009 so there's a yeah the possibility of a little history for them which is surprising i mean uh i'm not being a great statistic man myself i mean i use obviously everything that's given to me but yeah that's surprising i would have thought that uh perhaps they'd have done a lot better than that at the marathon especially in the women's races considering their pedigree is on the track but here here in the marathon this is this could be significant for them really it's early days just not to put too much pressure on them but it'd be good if they could uh maybe get another medal here for that great nation that distance running well you with the quality that they've got here and the fact that de baba not tyranish not genzebe ma dibaba she's no relation to the others uh it's uh it's not inconceivable that they get on the podium here and uh getting contention for the uh for the top honours as the cameras continue to show us stuller and he third of the chinese athletes the other two courtesy of a free ride on the back of serena have managed to reattach themselves to that lead group we mustn't forget the uh the lone korean there hey song kim she's been there she is six nine two she's just been literally just uh keeping her eye on everything that moves that's diminutive little figure but uh she's been in that group all along watching and uh running very well on her own and uh she's uh well she's she could be a a player she was the 14th in the last world championships eighth sorry ninth in the ancient games um won the recent uh pyongyang marathon so yeah yeah who knows i mean we saw gabriel selassie come through in the men's to a shock win maybe it could be the same here for some well early days again the league camera focusing on that group of two now he and doula but i don't think they're going to be closing in fact i think they would just be happy to just keep this rhythm going between the two of them towards the finish yes i i can't see them reattaching themselves it just doesn't look to be the same kind of cadence that we saw from the likes of bullet now is that the two chinese swang a ding there i think that's weighing a thing who were with burler coming into this group and now finding the place a little bit too hard after trying to cling on to burlap for that period of time of what 5k or so to bring her bring the burler anyway up into this group burler stayed there she's run well she's still in that group but the other two i think have suffered and they're now going off the back well that's a shame for them but uh they're still having good runs bearing in mind that they're operating not too far outside their their lifetime best but uh having tagged on the back of the american they're just finding this uh a bit sharp there they are two five nine is wang and then on the far side ding who as i said is a really good cross country runner was inside the top 20 but the two of them have been together side by side they're uh perhaps their time in the league group has come to an end so 24k and we're six kilometers away from the 30k marker and usually in the big city marathons as far as the pacemaking duties are concerned the last of your pacemakers you normally have one or two that drop out at halfway the last of your pacemakers tend to go at 30 and in the big city marathons that can be the time where the race proper begins with you know what around about seven miles to go from 19 to 26 it can all change so we are edging closer to the stage of a race where you might expect somebody to try and make a move and one by one as is being indicated by the two chinese drifting off the back one by one this group is going to begin to get whittled down well pace make it difficult isn't it in the city marathon because if you're going to take anybody to 30k and you're good enough to do that at the pace they want probably good enough to go on a decent marathon yourself and some of the great marathons that marathons really have for some real talent taking them to that sort of level for 30k here though i think it's been a little bit different they haven't really hit it hard right for the word go it's been a casual not casual it's been a a normal start should we say to the marathon they've all been very happy just to stay in that group for a long long time they're still in that group in fact so really at the moment it's just a case of trying to hang on for as long as you possibly can now again this could be something of nothing are they coming up to a drink station or has there been a tiny little bit of a split edna kiplight has just raced past the likes of the lithuanian drastile skyter who has just gone to the back there and it's the first time we've seen alessandra aguirre the talented spaniard not right up there at the front of that group as i said the the gap it could be something relatively insignificant we know the two chinese have been dropped they're off the back as birla's just on the back right of frame there did brilliantly to bridge that gap but she's the only one of the three but look there you can see there's a definite gap it's the tall very distinctive lithuanian at the head of that group the russian has also dropped back there proka paver ding's moved past her compatriot and she is the better of the two chinese so we might have expected that but some of the europeans have drifted off the back the lithuanian the russian and the spaniard alessandra aguiar so one by one they're coming off the back five six four is edna kipplygat now has she got a problem or was she caught napping a little bit was she just uh tagging along with the likes of the lithuanian and also aguiar and costa's gone off the back as well so we've lost the we've lost some of the ethio uh it's lost some of the europeans off the back of that group so we need to keep a close eye here to see whether edna kiplight has started to struggle she's the last of the kenyans but could just be a drink stop yeah it could be a drink so i think you're right though rob i think there was a slight uh well a slight gap opening up there it could have been the fact that they were coming into a drink station they just wanted to make sure they got what uh they needed there keep the gap though there she is next to that motorbike there she still looks comfortable i think that perhaps it was a case of just maybe grabbing a few uh extra bottles of water you never know you never will keep track of that because obviously it's important because if that's the case then the defending champion is suffering a little bit here and the europeans have definitely gone off the back the russian the lithuanian costa and aguero who did so well to bridge that gap and as far as those who caught the leaders are concerned it's only serena burler who at the moment has managed to uh stay there there she is eight six seven and five six four there is edna kiplicat she's got her drink she's back with the leaders but shigetomo's pace the osaka marathon winner in 2012 is beginning to have an impact on this race and bit by bit this group is splintering yeah she dropped off there ding is coming through though i did a disservice she was uh she was suffering a little bit i think and she dropped off that group of about four that burler was pulling through she was a bit of drifted that wang and uh i can't remember the other chinese i think that came through wangan wanga ding it was but i think the ding now is actually coming back again so she's found a little bit of form and she's got the europeans to try and use to draw her back towards that group as they drift back she's got something to aim at you can see the uh i think shingotamo they're just dropping her arms a little bit they're waving her hands around just trying to relax her arms a little bit some behind though this uh diminutive commit korean has it's run really well i mean you know she's a real a real talent yes hi song kim of the people's republic of korea 14th as you said steve a good run in moscow she's won the pyeongchang marathon pyeongchang will play host to the winter olympics in 2018 and here is that group of four europeans berasov has managed to work her way past duller so we're seeing some of the casualties here and the japanese shigetomo by cranking it up has dropped three or four from that big group and as far as the kenyan aspirations are concerned at the moment edna kiplight is still there so we we have the three japanese we have the three ethiopians the three kenyans and uh serena burler doing her best to hang on to the back of that group she's still there at the moment although the american the plucky american who made up so much ground coming up towards halfway she too has seen three or four meters grow between her and the back of that group so she just needs to focus here and pull this back if she's having a bad patch she just needs to try and ride it out she's got a lifetime best of 228 so she's capable of staying with these women in bunching up theory so the pace when it went into that feeding station just picked up a little bit but now slowed down a little bit allowing them all to group back to the group that's chasing behind kesho's come off the back we of course have had four canyons in this race because of edna kiplikat's wild card if you're a defending champion you qualify automatically so visceline chep kesho who was third in paris this year she won the milan marathon last year she's going through a bad patch and she's now been passed or joined by the likes of costa of portugal aguirre of spain the lithuanian and procaper so one of the kenyans has been dropped we've got serena burler the american trying to hang on edna kiplight still very much in that group and the three ethiopians tucking in behind the japanese leader and the current second place athlete hugh song kim flying the flag for the people's republic of korea and now we are in to the heart of the race now it's all it's almost become a a decent sized pack this ding has caught up the europeans she hasn't gone past them yet but you could argue she'll have more momentum than them because she's moving through the field whereas they're coming off the back of that lead group and chep kesho has just decided to try and tuck in with the lithuanian the spaniard wang on her own at the moment she is the second best placed of the three chinese athletes 26 back in daegu so all sorts going on here ding trying to close the gap on the lead group wang's running on her own kesho has drifted back towards the europeans but we still have a very talented trio of kenyans trio of ethiopians and a trio of japanese athletes up in that top group yeah it's uh it's boiling down now and the remains of that uh pace is starting to have its effect see there may be at the back there three five three it's again just maybe drifting off i wouldn't see cigarette there no i don't think she is actually she's just easing herself to the back of that field well wang he was coming through very fast at one stage [Applause] drop it back and ding as we said here on the right of our picture it's got that group but didn't go past them so maybe she's just taking a bit of a respite there my ito at the back of that group she's got that sort of slightly flailing arm action as they turn towards their left-hand side as steve's been saying all the way through great to see so much support for these women out on the course the american still in touch and it's uh a pretty decent pace being set here by risa shigatomo now i'm just watching maya ito at the back of that group back right of frame whether she's just beginning to struggle a little bit it's deceptive ito there she is we cut there she is three five three i was just saying she's deceptive because she's got this sort of very strange arm carriage and berla just on her inside there the american those two i think are not hanging on but i think they're doing their best to stay in contact are these four so these five but just see on the inside there i think that's ding isn't it on the inside i'm not sure yeah i think it is they're they're running comfortably as a group and they're what some 300 meters back there 200 meters back from this league group yes and and interestingly cheb kesho who had dropped back from this group and tucked in with them has been dropped by them so the kenyans race is getting really tricky and we should remind ourselves eunice kerr was still there 192 one of the fastest athletes in the world this year the east african now representing bahrain that was interesting at that border station there the three ethiopians really rushed to the front and grabbed two or three bottles each drenched themselves the barber there literally sprinted to the front of that group to get in and make sure that she got a drink so there's wang is suffering i think you can see that the leg cadence and the stride is is dropping and she's gonna have a hard what is it an hour maybe half the next part of this marathon she might have chep kesho to chase if the kenyan continues to go backwards but uh wang isolated on her own her compatriot ding has managed to catch up with uh yeah there you go the european chasers there's a little bit of pushing and shoving going on there as the athletes got some drinks on amongst them a few heels being clipped there yeah it is a dangerous it is a dangerous situation and there's a few bottles thrown on the floor too which causes problems if you just trip on those remember you're dealing with tired legs here there's costa coming through she's 25 seconds back yep so good rhythm she's been sort of ticking along we've almost dismissed her really but she's been ticking along quite comfortably ding also finding second wind these two coming back maybe to the group well maybe maybe costa had a bad patch and she's coming through the other side but 25 seconds is a lot to bridge when you get to this stage of the race so it's a good aerial shot really most of those athletes now will take the misters there you go i don't think the temperature's too much to worry about here actually i mean in the olympic stadium where we are doing the commentary it's a little bit chilly actually this is the coolest it's been isn't it yep yep so uh conditions i would say they've been very lucky the men i think suffered whereas the women have been uh lucky with the conditions and i think that's paid dividends because it means that there's a big group here no one's really suffered from the effects of the heat it's more the effects of the race itself that's panning out here wang still running on her own trying to close in on the tiring kenyan up ahead of her and close the gap on the europeans who are running as a chase group containing her compatriot chan ding so i'm making around 12 athletes in that group three japanese three kenyan three ethiopian one american with berla hai song kim of korea and then the kenyan representing bahrain eunice kowa so it's still a fairly sizable group bearing in mind that we've been running or they've been running for almost an hour and three quarters there's this group then there's the second group just behind which we saw previously and then if you looking back even further down the road there isn't another athlete in sight just checking on our scoreboard a monitor here yeah there's a group that group chasing is about uh as we said 25 seconds and then you drop after that quite considerably to about two minutes or so to another group chasing and uh that includes the two australians sarah klein and uh diver they're in that main group along with uh some of the other i would say some of the other finns and europeans and the american esther herb so they are four minutes of drift so yep so after this two main groups it drops off considerably so wang plowing on alone and as steve was saying it's uh there are big big gaps on the course but this is a sizable group of leaders still together and bear in mind no ethiopian woman has ever won this title a sellafest merger a bronze back in berlin and we've got edna kiplicat trying to become the first woman to win a hat trick of world championship titles two in a row how she'd love to make it three but uh risa shigatomo she's been the most dominant of the japanese in terms of dictating the pace 11th in new york a couple of years ago as we look at the chase group of europeans trying to maintain some good rhythm here aguirre's perhaps rallied a little bit after going through a bad patch ding was also there but wang still running on her own but that's such a big group i just wonder whether someone's going to start making a move or maybe challenging shigatomo to at least dominate the pace there you can see the the europeans were running with ding just in the background but uh someone's got to make a move here surely you hoped they would it gives you something to commentate about no it's just interesting there's too many in there i don't think they will i just i think it's a war of attrition here i think what's going to happen is slowly but surely if you keep this pace going one more will drop off then another will drop off and then maybe when it gets to the last i don't know the last 5k or so then maybe we'll see start people start thinking about making a move because at the moment i think they're very happy to just to take this marathon along just to try and do as little as possible and hope that that by conserving energy that and other people are not feeling as good but the whittle we whittled down to maybe five or six of them coming into the last 5k they've just gone through 29 kilometers so we're not too far away from the last seven odd miles-ish and that's what they say even for club runners like me they say when you run a marathon in terms of how your body feels 20 miles is halfway that is how much the last six takes out of you mentally and physically so we're getting to the really really interesting stage of the race now where so much can change in those last few miles because if you think about it if if you run a few times a week you think okay yeah six miles sounds good and six miles is it is a nice comfortable run you know if if you keep fit but six miles when you've already got 20 in your legs is a completely different dynamic and a completely different task [Applause] well the rhythm hasn't really changed at all has it as i was saying and rob's hoping for a surge of pace but i think it's going to be this way for a while until someone starts feeling good and uh in a marathon that's uh that's a very precious commodity isn't it feeling good there's almost like a little mini peloton going on on the left there stephen the uh the guys on the bikes trying to uh get a glimpse of uh of these world-class athletes well if you're if you're a fan or i think perhaps the ones that are really trying to chase this uh this league group are coaches they've actually scouted the course they find out where they can actually use motorbikes or use uh the scooters even there but i don't think that gentlemen there is anything to do with the team he seems to be just quietly happily following it along but i mean he's following the pace and he's looking across there and that's that's sort of rhythm that they're running out shows you how fast they fly i mean that's the sort of rhythm they're running at that guy's going quite fast on his scooter so yeah it's a it's a good course to follow it really is i mean you've got the opportunity if you're a coach or you're a family member to follow your athletes around actually i would say all of the course but i would say about 50 and you could dodge from one place to another cut across and then see him at some other point yeah it's good course for the spectators just looked as though dressed out skyter was uh having a bit of a revival there the lithuanian there's a decent little group of chasers there looked like the uh russian proclapa was getting dropped off the back but the lithuanian was moving quite positively there but she's some way detached from this lead group but the defending champion still there mara de baba the fastest woman in the world this year two victories in marathons here in china she won zarman in under 220 and uh chopping to the other side of the road there was eunice one of the fastest woman in the world this year kesho was dropped off the back quite a while ago and in terms of the dynamic of where she is we think that she might be a decent athlete for wang to chase wang is the second place of the three chinese athletes but uh kesho's gone we knew that kowa on the left there representing bahrain i just watched her chop her stride and style and she moved over to the right hand side 146 51 so they're still pretty solid it's just outside 230 pace and uh as you said steve maybe it is a case of just getting the liquid on board letting the miles tick along well the two kenyans there nearly missed their feeding stations they were just rushing along and they didn't really see their feeding stations it took till it was almost too late nearly bumped into one another and that's the problem so that's why they speed up a little bit coming into these stations so they can get a little and again a bit of problems there with the uh getting the extra bottle of water on there bumping one of the officials got to be careful you're getting tired now aren't we you know these athletes have massive fatigue levels creeping in and when you go into these stations your peripheral vision starts to maybe not function properly and your motor skills are dropping off tremendously so you have to be a bit careful if you don't trip up or you don't cause damage or even uh bought one of your other competitors it's a group of europeans running together and uh the lithuanian it's running well there she's got ding alongside her and you could see they're um they've probably closed the gap a little bit honestly yeah yeah well the camera falls short but i mean yes they're not doing too bad i mean uh we've been saying it and you've been hoping there's been an increasing pace but i don't think there has been an increase in pace i think as you say it's been steady all the way nothing much to sort of worry about the others at the back there have been drifting off drifting back drifting off drifting back and going into all these feeding stations they slow down so it allows the other group to catch up and they hurry up at the 30k mark keep the gats there to segue to baba too far meet up here what they're all there really and then it drops off to that uh second group really doesn't it and uh the others chasing we saw dean coming through but i don't think that she's going to catch up that sort of gap it's about 25 seconds maybe 30 seconds now it's a big gap yeah so once again the japanese deciding that they want to tick things along here and this time instead of shigatomo it's maida and ding's actually moved past the lithuanian drowsdale skyta but remember they've got about 27-28 seconds to make up on that league group so um this would be a huge tall order for ding but uh looking at a cadence she's uh moving relatively nicely there and i think that uh that uh picture again for shortens it but she is probably about 20 seconds 25 seconds behind but she is moving well then a few meters back down the road cost has been dropped and agree is trying to hang on to the back of the russians so interesting dynamic for the athletes ranked around about what 13th to 17th and 18th interesting as well steve there hasn't really been any desire from the ethiopians in the field or from edna kiplicat and the other kenyans to share the duties setting the pace they've been more than happy for the japanese to get on with it well the funny thing is i mean last night in the 5 000 meters i was i was obviously pleased that tombow pharah actually won the race but i was disappointed in the ethiopians they didn't they didn't seem to have any race tactic at all they were just waiting for something to happen and when it did they just didn't follow some real class athletes there from the ethiopian team and it seems to be the case in all their distances at the moment they just apart from obviously the barber they don't seem to have a race plan they just seem to sort of drift along and they seem to be doing the same thing here which is a bit of a worry because they're playing into the hands maybe of some of the other athletes if they do that one we must always give another we haven't really been mentioned old uh hey song kim there have we the korean who's been ticking along really nicely the little uh korean there in that group she's done nothing wrong she's just been the lead on the sort of like the second place all the time through this race throughout the whole there she is in the blue blue strip of career just been running really well just been comfortable not doing anything too exciting not doing any damage at all but just following everything that moves at front yeah going back to that five thousand meters i agree halos gabriel hewitt's a really really exciting athlete he stormed his way through the field in moscow to pick up the silver he actually beat mo farah at the beginning of this season as we watch ding moving away from the lithuanian she's got uh 20 25 seconds to make up on the lead group kevin beats mo in the 3000 meters in doha at the start of this season and he beat his compatriot cajelcha for the bronze but i think if he'd gone earlier if he'd been aggressive as caleb and deeku the commonwealth and african champion was he may have got closer to beating mo farah so yes he's on the podium again a bronze to go with his silver from two years ago but he could have been a little bit more aggressive in that race last night now then edna kiplicat moving over to the left-hand side and she's gone to the front for the very first time the defending champion or at the very least she's pulled level she's gone to the left-hand side of that overpass i think yeah this is perhaps the only a bit of hill they've got in the whole marathon course the overpass that goes across this massive intersection here and by doing that maybe she just wanted to help hug that uh right hand side of the road i don't think she's actually putting a move on here but i don't think so rob i think they're again just shuffling around the uh the order as we see it good to see the burler is still in there the american who came back hard to uh catch this lead group she's running well now they've come down the other side of the uh the overpass and it's a bit of a downhill slope so we get a bit of a momentum going here keep rock on the outside there as you said get the gat on the other side so flanking the lead group but again no one's making a move i don't think it's a it's a it's a general grouping at the moment the american just moving forward there kim should tell him always she hasn't really moved at all she's just literally just been there concentrating well we've seen maya ito with the flailing arms drifting off the back and then coming back to the group dings moved significantly away from drastic skyter the lithuanian but it would be an amazing job if the chinese athlete were to come back to this group what's more likely perhaps is that she'll pick off one or two as they drift off the back but she's running well the chinese athlete and with so many locals out on the course she's sure to get good support inside the laster six and a bit miles well it's uh there are two you could just see the chinese legs right at the very top of the picture well it's there are still too many of them to come up and predict a winner at this stage i think kipling is looking good but we haven't really seen 23 seconds so it's quite a margin for the chinese chaser to make up we haven't really seen any uh any indication yet and look at that kiplicat has glanced over and she's talking to one of her compatriots there they're exchanging it's not a full-on conversation and you could be pretty sure they'd be talking in swahili and i i'd be relatively confident to say the likes of burle unless she's done high altitude training in intent the two of them talking to one another in a language that the others won't understand as the lithuanian she's been dropped by ding so they're comfortable enough to talk to each other and incidentally just talking about giving each other information i remember uh radicia said after he uh won that incredible uh olympic title with the world record he told the other kenyan in the race in swahili don't follow me in the call room he said to him don't follow me because i'm going for the world record if you come through the bell with me you'll be burnt up hang back and pick him off and guess what i think it was timothy kitum who came through for a medal he got on the podium so uh speaking swahili is uh is something that is done by the kenyans and uh they can give each other very useful information about what's about to happen so there was definitely some dialogue there between the defending champion and one of her compatriots who are you suggesting rob that most middle and long distance ones should take a course in swahili excuse me well it might help i mean you know imagine if uh imagine if a few of those guys in that core room had uh managed to understand what rhodesia was saying without letting on we can understand if you still can't keep up anyway back to the race the barber now just taking a bit of water as she moves to the front again i don't think that's a significant uh action if she's just easing herself to get a bit of fluids on kenyans again grabbing their uh fluids and losing a little bit of ground as they go through the misters they're spinning up a bit keep the gap now just picking the pace up a bit more i get the feeling though the other two chinese are just suffering a little bit sorry not the other the other two japanese are just suffering a little bit really that's the back and maybe not really uh uncomfortable at the moment but this one of those coming through she she's running really well actually ding i was really impressed with her at the world cross country championships you could just see it in the background she's just gone through the spray shower trying to cool down and a good run from the lithuanian transducer she was up with the leaders uh early on she's just behind ding trying to hold on to her rhythm as we get to the point of the race that really starts to hurt if you've run or jogged a marathon you will be well aware of how tiring that last uh five or six miles can be we're not far short of coming up to the two hour point in the race significant landmark i think anyway chigamoto though is running well on the inside she's always been up there and on the outside you can see keep the gap who was the well conversing with their teammates maybe just a few minutes ago maybe she was saying that something's going to happen or not i'm not sure but good on ding there she is she's on her own and she is closing no question about that it was 25 seconds before it's probably down to about 20 now and hopefully that uh the last what would it be now perhaps 30 minutes or so 35 minutes or so of the race she can maybe get up there and uh maybe get out the competition over the last 5k or so so the group split across the road burler trying to hang on i think maida and ito as you said steve are beginning to struggle as they go past the magnificent national tennis center huge facility here towards the heart of the city as they head back towards the olympic venues that have been preserved and maintained magnificently oh that's the great birthday stadium it is a it is an unbelievable structure at nighttime it lights up i think that is the tennis center still isn't it yet there's the i'm not sure this is these are the ib centers which are now used as conferences there's the bubble the swimming pool so yeah i mean look it just goes on or not i mean the actuals when we came to the beijing games in 2008 the actual size of the olympic complex is beyond belief the actual size olympic conversation even the uh the car park for the coaches and the official cars was i think bigger than the london olympics itself the actual car park itself that just goes to the scale of what beijing did here in the games right let's bring you up to speed with what's happening here because there's a little bit of splintering going on maya ito 535 with that distinctive left to right movement with her hands she's just having to rally a little bit and also for the first time serena burler the american who did so well remember she dragged the two chinese back to the lead group she's come off the back and it won't be too much further before the likes of ding who's now going past one of those amazing structures on this olympic sports complex it won't be too far before ding begins to pick off one or two of these chase one or two of these lead group athletes who have begun begun to be dropped so this is a significant development i think one of the ethiopians has gone so we have the three kenyans running together three five four tickets two for the winner of the london marathon is there so too eunice kowa representing bahrain and marie de barber so it's turfy segue who was third in the london marathon she's the ethiopian who's struggled and been dropped off the back so for so long we were 12 and now that group has splintered down to six steve yep you're right the swahili conversation has done something hasn't it they've obviously decided that was the point of the race where they're going to start making a move and i think kipling just conversed with their other two compatriots there and said right what are we doing are we doing something or not and maybe she told them to pick it up and take the pace for her because they're up front and she's just at the back of that group of six so in the space of around two and a half minutes the group of 12 has splintered down to six turfy segate who has won tokyo and berlin and finished third in london this year she's become detached so only two of the ethiopians living with this place the three kenyans plus eunice kowa representing bahrain but the baba looks good there she is just tucked in second there looking down at their heels and kiprop comes across kia was there twofood's there i kept again i'm not sure about kippagat she doesn't look comfortable although she's got that ungainly long sort of loping stride and her arms look a bit tired but she's still there in that group of six at the back soon just working well at the front she looks comfortable she looks as if she's been told to do something and she's doing just that she's working hard i agree with you as well steve in terms of uh marie de barbera she looks so strong in second place she's the fastest woman in the world this year and she's quite happy tracking the kenyan leader and all of a sudden 12 have become six and it's race on here on the early morning muggy day devoid of the baking heat that made it so difficult for the elite men in their marathon last saturday and this is going to start to hurt now kiplegatz at the back is the defending champion just beginning to struggle a little bit ito's come off the back segate as i said had great wins in tokyo and berlin last year and the korean who was up there for so long hai song kim those three all in a line just behind there you can just see i think it is the chinese athlete just coming through so she's running well she might catch that group of five or six just in front of her well the medalists you suspect will come from this group of six three kenyans two ethiopians and one athlete from bahrain still a long way to go half an hour maybe of running that's a long way of running if you're tired it really is just coming into one of those another feeding stations just waiting to see whether this group spits up a little bit more the kenyans i think are very keen to take on fluids coming across cutting people out just well kipling got almost stopped there to pick hers up so they're all taking on as much as they can knowing that it's still essential to keep hydrated bottles thrown on the floor a few more just grabbed to pour over their heads kiplegatz working here isn't she to stay with this group yeah i'd like to think that she was but i get the feeling that she is the barber i think in front there may be the danger because if she pushes it on a little bit more i think this group will split up again 204 yeah so it's it's it's well within their comfort range here it's uh it's not going to be much if it's inside 230 it won't be by much unless there's a significant increase in pace here and the group has been completely decimated and blown apart there burler just going through she's had a really good run and here's ding she's been coming through now i think this would be interesting to see how many of these ethics thing can pick up because she's been coming through now and she looks more comfortable that's my either ding is coming so it's my either sorry that's right ding is just in the distance and i think she'll be up on the japanese very shortly and i agree with you i think she looks really positively the chinese athlete certainly the last time we got a split from her and i think she'll be picking off quite a few and she'll get a great reception when she comes in here to the stadium so seven and a half k to go but this is really going to hurt tigger's two foot at the back of this group two ethiopians in contention for the medals and remember they've never done better than a bronze before a cellophase merger picking up the third spot on the podium back in berlin edna kiplicat five six four aiming to become the first woman in history to win three world titles at the marathon okay we're there bahrain the transferee from kenya she looks comfortable her arms are pretty high she's relaxed running well inside 69 minutes for the half marathon she finished third in paris a couple of years ago second in amsterdam in 2012. she's a class act and she's got one of the fastest pbs of any woman in this field okay well as you say looks very comfortable the barber though the diminutive little ethiopian almost encased there between the other four in the head ahead of it she's dwarfed by the others actually this is a tiny figure but uh taylor made for marathon running in some ways very compact very economical style still too tight to make a prediction as to which of the six will be on the podium couple of meters opening up steve back to tickets twofer the london marathon winner she was brilliant in the british capital earlier this year she won the shanghai marathon last year it's only a couple of meters as ito tries to the head's gone to the side the arms are starting to fade a little bit ito is suffering but she's a tough competitor she'll keep going just behind her you can see the other athletes really kim including that just uh trying to keep their rhythm going as long as possible twofer is definitely struggling here there's no other reason why she'd be allowing a gap like that to to grow at a crucial time of the race such as this so this is the magnificent olympic park look at this as i said before it's immaculate absolutely beautiful i mean you could do a decent to run through the park without actually going through any other of the routes more than once so the three kenyans are still in it the bahrainian kiwa and the barb up just tucked in behind the fastest woman in the world this year marie de barber it looks as though she's flying the solo flag for ethiopia tick is twofer hasn't completely capitulated but she's looked over her shoulder she's allowed the gap to grow could run this from hai song kim who was 14th in moscow and looks as though she's going to finish much higher than that well inside the top ten so two ethiopians were in this group now it's just one and six have become five fascinating again the ethiopia as we said before only won one bronze in the women's marathon and yet kenya have done so well such a differential between what happens on the track really having said that though i mean if the barber does win here she'll set the new trend for the ethiopians but the odds are stacked against her three to one at the moment and one bahrainian and she's obviously a trans free from kenya as well so in fact it's almost four kenyans and one ethiopian here just looking the kenyans had a clean sweep in 2011 that was the first of any kipling gas titles when the hugely talented prisca jet two got the silver and sharon cherrott got the bronze long way to go before we start talking about a gold silver and bronze for kenya but there are still three of them up there with eunice kowa and marie de barber still very much in the mix but there's some great drama to come here over the closing stages the qr's pushing it hard the transferee running out for bahrain she's got the best time that's well in uh well in her capabilities of running here so uh she's a real danger looking very comfortable very impassive three kenyans just uh holding their own tooth has gone though she's literally been ejected out the back and that's a shame really checking her watch to see what's going on it's amazing how quickly it can unravel in the closing stages one minute you're on the group and the next you're you're going through a really bad patch just looking at the winning margins of the last four editions of the championship it's usually pretty tight ender won by eight seconds in 2007 by zhu of china had a 10 second margin in 2011 ito still grinding it out there she's uh she's having a good run but uh clearly hurting edna kippler gets two victories 17 seconds and 14 seconds so okay it doesn't or hasn't yet come down to a sprint but it's been pretty close over the last three or four editions of this race and uh it looks as though it could be destined to be quite tight here again it does it certainly does i mean we're getting in there to two hours ten maybe another 20 minutes or so 25 minutes or so of the race still to go qr though is moving well out in front no one is yet i don't think that structure in the foreground they're absolutely magnificent isn't it that's something out of a sci-fi film i have seen that in sci-fi film yeah exactly but i mean too fun now disappearing at the back she's really working hard but she is uh i'm afraid not going to be up there now because the pace is on just less than 20 minutes to go ito suffering look at this i hope she can just keep it together this has been a hard race for her the queue up now pushing it on keep the gap just on the uh back of that field shadowing her two teammates just on the inside there if you didn't know de barber was there you you'd think there were four in that group she's dwarfed by the other four women yeah but okay let's look at her leg cage it's much faster keep the gap behind her though is really tall long legs just uh beating away there kiprop perhaps perhaps looking as though she's working really hard there just uh rocking and rolling a little bit some gong there uh the well would you say the the leader of the kenyans you would probably say that she's in front super gong he's a real talent really sixth in london this year third in the the armed forces 10k so she's good on the track and she's actually run a couple of 50 on the beatles so you know maybe she's got a bit of speed in her legs too this uh canyon there she is in the middle ito looking at the school cardito is in about uh i think seventh place just coming into another not feeding station another watering zone here oh they'll need that still still 18 minutes to go up there she is the bahrainian is a fair marathon 222 or this year she's done 221 so she is a real class act oh she's she's good enough to in theory she's good enough to win this race i mean yes okay now she's representing bahrain so she's not wearing the traditional colors we'd expect to see the ethiopians in the kenyans but she's class second in amsterdam in 2012 third in paris two years ago well she won here in nagoya yes earlier this year and she's been running uh 10ks in hot conditions and running the half marathons at goofy marathon half marathon so she's she's prepared really well de baba just checking her watch her namesake gen zepe going for the double tonight in the stadium the women's 5 000 meters she still looks good unusual arm action de barber swings across the front of her chest as we look at two for the reigning london marathon winner who's uh been blown out the back she was right there in the lead six but she's become the latest casualty of the relentless pace too far i think did about sixth place at the moment just dropping off that group the crowds are building up getting closer and closer to the stadium look at that i mean it's an a to b course this marathon so not easy to follow and it's it's still too early it's so difficult to predict who the three medalists will be from this five steve well yeah it's difficult i mean this is what racing is all about you just don't know i don't think any of these five know who's who it's going to be they're probably hoping it's going to be there but no real indications as yet do you think maybe kiprops looking a tiny bit ragged on the left i don't know styles deceptive i mean the heads go back a bit and then so to keep a gap moving across the way for the mr skip the cat she doesn't really want to be too cool in fact she's moved out from there and come back in again wow difficult to choose kilowatt looks good though i mean kiwa and the bubba they look fairly comfortable behind them hip hop and kipper gap were sort of like wobbling a little bit if you can call it that in style turns but they're still running well no one is dropping off yet the barber though for the first time has come around the big kenyans and bahrainian and decided to assert a little self at the front holds her hands very high she does with that action to barber but it's clearly effective yeah it is again one of these long long boulevards stretching out in front of them still nothing to separate these five women and they will have less than 15 minutes of running to go now on the inside there next to debab up kilwa it is now just a mind game isn't it who's gonna go and when you gamble but going and holding it because you can go and then they just pull you back and then you know you're in trouble whereas you wait a little bit longer and you go you can just make the line get the gap back there she must be thinking this is going to be number three this is going to be what i've got to do this will make me something in history if she can do it she's trying her best there she is with the white shoes on on the inside still running well it will be a phenomenal achievement to win three world championship marathons it's pretty easy on the track to be honest i mean mo farah's proved that convincingly i mean it's not a hard ass to run 5k if you're in great shape it's a hard ass even if you're in great shape to win a marathon three times because so many factors can come in nice as you said it's so easy for something to go wrong in america so to win three in a row would be incredible 30 seconds back to twofer but her races run as far as the medals are concerned she won't be featuring unless she has some kind of extraordinary recovery these five are where the medals are going to come it's a question of in what order and whose names will be written into the history of the world championship to barbara possibly possibly if you're trying to read anything into body language she's looking good she's not afraid to go to the front but it's still too tough to tell who's feeling good you can't get inside their minds and and that perhaps as you've said steve that's the key to who's going to come through who has the mental belief and who has the desire and the drive to fight through the pain that they will all be feeling very poetic rob really but it is pain really that's the main problem there yeah i think kiplicat as it kept a gap for me the closer she gets to the finish the better she become because she's got more incentive than the others to do it whereas the others really they'd love to win they would dearly love to win but have they got that same incentive i don't think they have and if we if we remember how brutally hard strone took the pace out in moscow and how hot it was it was much hotter actually okay not with the same humidity it was boiling when we commentated on that race in moscow and it took absolutely everything out of edna kiplicat she only got away from the italian very very close to the stadium winning margin was 14 seconds i think she said after that race if i remember rightly that it was one of the hardest things she'd ever ever done and you know she's run some really really big races so she knows how to go through the pain and she knows how to rely on those competitive instincts so the experience and the credentials that she's got put her in a very strong position i was going to say the closer it gets the closer that she's going to get to that gold medal i think but the others on the other hand if they're thinking clearly they would think that and they would start thinking well we've got to start breaking it up now we're going to start making it so that no one has that confidence over that last three or four kilometers and if i was to barber she looks the diminutive of the of the four here her leg stride is good she could perhaps increase her case quickly and get away quickly and i'm not sure whether the other kenyans maybe yeah the fact that edna is the defending champion the fact that she is a kenyan you know teamwork it's a bit like the uh the the the chinese women's walkers wasn't it where you had a feeling that the winner was going to win but the second place i can't remember their names on the second place almost held back you know almost in respect to let the other person win yes that might be the case here with the kenyans they might hold back to let edward win out of respect really more than anything else we'll have to wait and see well just looking at the personal bests of the others hella kiprop running on the left there with a slightly labored looking style but it's uh it's clearly effective she's got a best of 224 that was set this season second in tokyo so her lifetime best couple of meters there developing is that uh a sign of trouble there for edna kipligan maybe we'll have to watch this this could be significant kira kiprok 224 and jemima sungong has gone 220. this is a problem for the defending champion i think for the first time edna kiplight who's been so dominant in daegu and in moscow a few meters has grown between her and what is now a lead quartet and she is suffering well that's right as i said before they've got to make sure before they get into that crucial stage of the last two or three kilometers that that kipplecat really isn't really there because i think that she would rally herself she's the pride and her confidence would come back into it and i think you saw there that the barber going around that corner she just linked to the stride the little kenyan sorry the little ethiopian just linked in the stride a little bit and pulled these four away well kiplicat has been a wonderful wonderful champion over the years but i think her chances of winning a third consecutive world title of gone there's no other reason she'd be allowing a gap like that to grow at this stage of the race it is still possible she's an incredible athlete it is still possible she could find something but but she's gonna have to find it quickly and de barber has gone to the front there after coming through that drink station i think they've sensed that the big danger was slightly off the back and i think the barb up has moved on a little bit so too really you must admit some gong the other kenyan is still pushing it on there she is at the front there when they went around that bend the barber made a little bit of a move and sungong counted it she went with her and those two really made the difference between uh kiplicat holding on or dropping off but kevlar can is still there she's increased the stride a little bit maybe she could still come back who knows it would be incredible if if she managed to get back from there she's clearly going through a really bad patch but i would agree with you steve she hasn't become completely and utterly detached it looks unlikely she'd get back to the lead four at the moment but the longer she can keep them in their sights maybe maybe she could find some kind of burst of speed over the last four or five minutes but actually now from that angle it does look as though a few more meters are growing between the defending champion and this quartet out front some gong running on the left there second in chicago in recent years second in new york she's won rotterdam she's got a brilliant pb 220 48. kira looks good the bahrainian on the other side though she's been bobbing along very nicely there so there's again not much to choose between these four i would say though that at the moment it looks as if kiprop is suffering a little bit more than the other three some gone driving the pace on she actually has a personal best jemima sun gong some three or four minutes quicker than her kenyan compatriot de baba is the fastest woman in the world this year the tiny ethiopian effective style effective stride she's trying to produce a piece of history for the ethiopians who've never won this race and eunice ko are still there and as the birds nest stadium looms into sight so they realize that they're closing in on the finish of the race and they've got to leave it all on the course here great to see so many chinese spectators lining the route and they're going to see a classic climax to this race this is a great finish isn't it the cubby down the main boulevard here at the olympic boulevard as well this is where the warps took place during the olympic games up and down here look at the lights in the background kipler cat's suffering now she really is she's done all she could she tried to hang on and we thought she was even a chance but edna kippler cat now is out of the medals but these four are fighting for it not much to choose now kiawah's piling it on sumgong looks good she looks over a shoulder to check where the barber is and the baba is there the little diminutive ethiopian has not budged there it is stretching out in front of they've just passed the bubble the swimming zone at the olympics and on the other side we saw the bird's nest but they go down now before they turn around and come back towards the stadium well steve four into three doesn't go and having got so so close one of these women is not going to be on the podium it's a brutal brutal sport this to barbara keeps checking her watch does that give us a clue that she's she's got a plan here that she's comfortable that she's running within herself that she's going to seize this opportunity to finally put an ethiopian on top of the winner's podium in this event so many dominant performances from kenyans over the years so this is the last turn rob look at this i'm just going to say there's the bird's nest this is the last turn before they come about two or three hundred meters further down and then turn into the stadium and you've still got four women in contention for the medals well surely this won't come down to a sprint at the end of 26.2 miles but there's nothing to separate hella kiprop jemima sumgong eunice kowa and marie de baba de barber's the fastest athlete in the world this year and hella kiprop just allowing one or two meters to grow between her and the rest only three can get on the podium this is so so close akira there at the beginning just adjusting her straps on her wrist who's almost preparing herself for a sprint she has run a couple of 1500 meters this year maybe she's got the sprints in the legs but look the barber's still checking a watch there's the shadow of the great stadium now and they're stretching out to baba just pushing on a little bit more just maybe inching away ahead of the other three is this a bid for the gold medal or is this just a case of just easing yourself ahead at the moment the tension's beginning to mount here marie de barber the fastest woman in the world this year she's at the front kiprop is rocking and rolling a little bit in fourth place but her style is deceptive and she's still there four women in contention for three medals it's going to be agony for one of them and ecstasy for the leader they're turning towards the shadow of the stadium this is going to be the tightest finish in world championship history koa trying to force away on the inside of de baba the two kenyans have been broken kip prop is in third place ko was second all four of them will come into the stadium at the same time some gong has allowed a gap to grow to barbara leads ko a second kip rock third the winner could come from any of these three but has the tiny ethiopian saved her best for exactly the right moment they're coming towards the line still driving still sprinting it's going to be gold and silver to ethiopia in kenya but what a sprint to the line what a finish and it's going to be mari de barber what an amazing amazing run to barbara takes it by a single second a superb finish to that run kiprop takes the silver and a brave bronze for eunice koa for bahrain we have never seen a finish as tight as that it could have been as tight as it would be in an 800 meters kipler cat a great great champion in her time but today she wasn't destined to finish on the podium she concludes this race with pride and dignity intact but it does remain two world titles for her and at last the ethiopians have a global champion in this event and her name is marie de baba well what can you say they came into the stadium and normally there's a lap before they actually come through the finish but this time they came into the stadium where the 100 meter mark was and it was a sprint from the 100 meters to get the medals the barber though the diminutive little barber those legs ticking over so fast she just inched herself ahead of kiprop and in the end a great victory for ethiopia their first gold medal at the marathon and the name is the baba yet again kiplop in second she did all she possibly could and in the end kiwa who looked so good the barranium had to settle for the bronze because those three came through together with a hundred meters to go well tickets two for coming across the line winner of the london marathon this year the only time steve that i can remember a marathon as close as that was the climax of the 2001 men's marathon in edmonton when guessing bearer won by a single second and that's exactly what's happened here today mario 227.35 hella kiprok 227 36. that was as tight a finish as you will ever see in a major championship marathon an extraordinary race four seconds separating gold from bronze only seven seconds separating first to fourth yeah that was a great run wasn't it they left it until the last possible second to decide the medals turfy segay trying to come into the stadium two for the ethiopian was six ito great run for the japanese in seventh there's kim she's uh she's obviously suffering but running as best she can [Applause] well mario de barber is uh sprinting down the back straight on her lap of honor she's still got so much energy left well yeah she's doing the best there's no one over the back straight in terms of the crowd but she is literally running a good 400 here now she's coming round to where the main crowd is here we go look flag goes aloft here's the main crowd that have been watching this event on the scoreboards in the olympic stadium and i must admit it's been a fascinating race well rob you thought there was going to be a surge at some point but you didn't think it was going to be in the last 100 meters well it was just crazy to think at one stage good run by the american coming across excellent work from the korean high song kim and then comes serena well she's done so much berla to pull herself back and coming back into actually athletics for a terrible cancer scare great run from her well you just won't see a tighter finish than that in a major championship marathon it was absolutely extraordinary well he just needs to sergey there congratulations teammate on the victory the other ethiopian dish just half hugging up after the finish line there's costa coming through we saw her earlier on coming back into that group just behind her the other i think it was japanese athlete there coming through the barber what a run she had to go up into another gear she had to go into sprint mode in the marathon to get that gold medal and all credit to hella kiprok we thought that perhaps her strained looking style was putting her under pressure not as quick as any of her other three compatriots but good enough for world championship silver and kirwa a bronze for bahrain it was agony to watch such heartache coming so close to a medal and missing out but uh jemima sung ending up in fourth place just seven seconds behind the winner so so tight and here comes ding into the stadium the crowd really rising to their athlete she's worked hard and she deserves it still right a really good time 233 in these conditions marijuana will be the toast of ethiopia and the toast of addis ababa tonight an absolutely brilliant finish here we go this is a replay of that last dramatic 100 meters but coming under the last part of the stadium it was close but deba just had that meter also but this was the moment steve where she came on the outside i thought she might do it yeah those long legs started working but the barber again surged yet again and in the end as you say a mere second over 42 plus kilometers beautiful long sprinting strides takes the first ethiopian gold in the marathon for women [Music] well i wonder if the legendary hailey gabriele selassie is watching this on his house on the hill which overlooks the city if he is there'll be a feeling of pride

Channel: World Athletics

Views: 555,997

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

Id: 27iTFBpGGrc

Length: 163min 46sec (9826 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 24 2020