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Defar has impressive, second-place road racing debut at World’s Best 10k

Posted February 26th, 2007 at 10:14 PM by Jeanie Rebb

Section: News & Results

Meseret Defar’s 10 km road racing debut can only be viewed as a qualified success. She ran a very solid 32:08, good for second place, at the 10th annual “World’s Best 10k” in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Sunday, February 25th.

However, she was ultimately beaten by over a minute by reigning world road running champion, Lornah Kiplagat of the Netherlands.

In windy conditions, the two were together at 3 km in a swift 9:17, but in the next five kilometers, the Dutchwoman opened a huge 46 second lead, splitting 8-K in 24:45. She went on to win in 31:05, her fifth victory here.

“From the beginning it was kind of a slow race,” said Kiplagat’s husband and manager, Pieter Langerhorst, who called the RRW office this morning. “There was a lot of wind. At three and a half-K Meseret had to let go already.”

On the men’s side, Gilbert Okari got his season off to a good start with a one-second victory over Cosmas Koech, best known for running the roads in the Netherlands. Marathon ace Martin Lel was third. Nobody earned any of the big time bonuses: $15,000 for men sub-28:00 or women sub-31:00, or $100,000 for a new world record