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Lead Stories: Friday, November 21, 2008

Kenyans Sweep; Khannouchi Frustrated at Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon San Jose

Posted October 15th, 2007 at 4:06 PM by Martha Jones

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Kenyans McDonald Ondara and Magdalene Makunzi won the second annual Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon San Jose on Sunday. Ondara, 23, covered the 13.1-mile course in 1 hour, 1 minute, 11 seconds. Makunzi, 24, broke the tape in 1:09:58.

The men’s race culminated in a sprint to the finish as Ondara, who led the majority of the race, beat the 27-year-old Tanzanian John Yuda by just seconds.

“I was sort of afraid of him,” said Ondara of his closest competitor Yuda. “It was very hard to predict,” Ondara added about planning his final kick.

Yuda managed a smile as he clutched his ribs after the finish from an apparent side stitch.

“It was a good race,” Yuda said. “The course was quick.”

After mile three, the men’s lead pack began to thin out, gradually dropping American Khalid Khannouchi. The four-time Chicago Marathon champion was clearly frustrated with his 1:05:04 finish time.
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Khannouchi set to lead Meb-less American bid at
Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon

Posted October 10th, 2007 at 6:23 PM by Martin Kennedy

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Former world and current American record holder in the marathon Khalid Khannouchi has never made an Olympic team in his historic career. Now, at the age of 35, Khannouchi leads the American bid at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon San Jose, Sunday, October 14, 2007, in preparation for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men’s Marathon in New York City next month.

Without the 2006 women’s champion Silvia Skvortsova in this year’s field, Kenyan Edna Kiplagat returns to San Jose to better her second place finish from a year ago in the event’s inaugural running.

Khannouchi’s list of career accomplishments are impressive. He has won the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon four times. Twice he has set world records at the marathon, once in Chicago 1999 (2:05:42), and again in London 2002 (2:05:38) in what many in the running world believe to be the greatest marathon ever run.
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