OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 12.30pm.
AFRICAN runners swept the board at the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, taking the top three palces in both the men’s and women’s races.
Kenyan Ondoro Osoro, running in his first marathon ever, blitzed through the field to finish in two hours, six minutes and 54 seconds, the third-fastest marathon time in history and just 49 seconds off the world record, set by Ronaldo Da Costa at last month’s Berlin Marathon.
The winner of the women’s race was another Kenyan, 1997 London Marathon champion Joyce Chepchumba, in a personal best time of 2:23:57.
Second in the men’s race was US-based Moroccan Khalid Khannouchi in 2:07:19. He was followed by South African Gert Thys in a personal best 2:07:43.
South Africans were the two runners-up in the women’s race, with Colleen De Reuck finishing second in 2:27:04, and Elana Meyer was third in 2:27:20.