Anitha Kiptum of Kenya wins Women 10K and collapses at finish; Vivian Tang fastest local in 6th

By Les Tan

The Padang, Sunday, October 26, 2008 – Anitha Kiptum of Kenya won the Women 10K race this morning at the Padang in a dramatic finish that saw her rushed to the hospital in an ambulance for exhaustion. Her winning time of 34 minutes 55 seconds is outside her personal best time of 32min 12sec and also slower than last year’s winning time of 33min 46.30sec. However, that was not the concern of most onlookers as they witnessed the drama that unfolded before them.

Running strongly down the finish straight along Andrew Road, Anitha started to stagger from exhaustion. She became disoriented and was unable to locate the tape. For the longest time, it seemed like she was not going to cross the tape and clock in with the timing chip. She fell into someone’s arms and eventually crossed the finish line, with someone yelling “Don’t assist her!” for fear of disqualification due to the assistance. Whether or not she was assisted is for the technical judges to say – and she has been awarded first prize – but all eyes were glued to Anitha as she was put on a stretcher and brought to the medical tent.

Before anyone had a chance to find out if Anitha would recover, along came Suzy Walsham in second place, 20 seconds behind. She too started to lose her orientation and staggered near the finish line. She too fell into the arms of an official and had to be assisted to the medical tent. Suzy recovered quickly enough to allay any fears but Anitha was put on a drip and the decision was made to send her to the hospital, the ambulance speeding away with lights flashing providing a dramatic backdrop for the other elite runners coming down the stretch.

Singapore’s fastest woman, Vivian Tang, came in sixth and at the end of the race said her time was slow. That everyone had run slower than expected was echoed also by Suzy Walsham.

“Everyone ran a slower time than expected,” said Suzy, whose personal best for the 10km is 34:11 set in Bali earlier this year. “At 4km, I was 12 seconds behind (Anitha), at 6km, 20 seconds behind. At 8km, even more. I really wanted to break 34 (minutes). I’m a bit disappointed. I just ran out of gas.”

Humidity probably played a part in the slower times for the race that was run under overcast skies on a windless morning that saw 3,900 runners take part in the 10km race.

Results:
(position – name – bib # – 6.1km check point time – finish time)
1st – Anitha Kiptum – 0097 – 00:21:17 – 00:34:55
2nd – Suzanne Walsham – 0085 – 00:21:36 – 00:35:15
3rd – Fridah Lodepa – 0080 – 00:22:34 – 00:36:59
4th – Trudy Fawcett – 0081 – 00:24:18 – 00:39:22
5th – Anne Date Qi Hui – 0084 – 00:24:19 – 00:39:44
6th – Vivian Tang – 0082 – 00:24:57 – 00:39:57
7th – Natalie Seaman – 1788 – 00:26:23 – 00:42:18
8th – Elaine Lim – 0083 – 00:26:24 – 00:42:33
9th – Cheong Tsui Ying – 6018 – 00:27:48 – 00:44:36
10th – Lim Baoying – 2737 – 00:28:18 – 00:44:47

N.B. the event is also known as the “Great Eastern Women 10K”.

REDpoll

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