Galen rupp prague marathon highlights

We’re always experimenting on CITIUS MAG dot com on ways to recap all the weekend’s action before the news gets stale so we’ve decided to come up with a weekly running commentary post between the two stats nerds on this site to crown the weekend’s two most impressive winners and losers of the weekend.

Welcome to Lane 9: Opinions you didn’t know you wanted to have (from Chris Chavez and Scott Olberding)

Scott: Hello, Chris. Just hopped out of the hibiscus Epsom salts bath.

Chris: That’s self-care 101 if I’ve ever heard of it.

Scott: I’ve been learning to treat my body right after asking a lot of it. What’s new? What’s on your mind?

Chris: I’m recovered from London and ready to get back into not just running but blogging and podcasting with my friends. Let’s start with the biggest name to compete this weekend. Galen Rupp. Who would’ve thought that 20 days after dropping out of the Boston Marathon, he’d sign up for the Prague Marathon and win the whole darn thing in 2:06:07. Only Ryan Hall and Khalid Khannouchi have ever run faster as Americans.

Scott: That is a very good performance. What are your initial thoughts and impressions? I know that Alberto Salazar has claimed that Galen is something like a 2:05/2:04 guy.

Chris: I was pleased to see that he’s inching toward that 2:05 prognostication by Alberto. As a team in December, we wrote about how we were a little disappointed that we didn’t see him chase a fast time in London and so I guess Mother Nature provided us with this performance. I think it goes to show that if the weather conditions may have been calmer and normal in Boston, he probably would’ve had a great shot at winning. I think the biggest question here and you texted me about it was “Do people care?”

Scott: I’m getting old and crotchety. And I don’t care. But I assume others do? I think part of it is that he dropped out of Boston when the writing was on the wall that

The talk about town before the race revolved around these two hot favourites – Sisay Lemma and Galen Rupp. And seeing both run side-by-side right from the start proved the predictions to be spot on. The American left it till the last four kilometres to crank up his pace, however in what played out as a gripping duel between the two and sweet victory for Gallen.

“Sisay is a really great marathon runner, it was no easy feat and I’m really pleased I managed to defeat him and win. I tried to keep a check on my pace, to get into it and stay positive. I’d like to say thanks to Carlo and his RunCzech team for inviting me to Prague and for making it possible for me to be the first American to win here, and to do so in such a good time too,” a clearly joyous Rupp revealed at the finish. He managed to enhance his personal best by more than three minutes taking him to 2:06:07 (the event record is 2:05:39 set by Eliud Kiptanui in 2010), adding a Prague victory to his two Olympic medals and marathon win in Chicago. Sisay Lemma came second with a time of 2:07:03 followed by Stephen Kwelio Chemlany (2:09:42) in third place arriving at Old Town Square in 2:09:42.

By contrast few could have predicted the results in the women’s race. Kenyan runner Bornes

During the long months of training over the winter, Galen Rupp’s goal was to win a marathon. That mission was accomplished on Sunday—but it happened in Prague, Czech Republic, instead of Boston, a few weeks later than planned.

Rupp, 31, lined up on April 16 for the Boston Marathon with what he said were more miles in his legs than ever before, on top of speed workouts that built the confidence that allowed him to believe he could contend for a victory on Marathon Monday. But the historically dreadful weather—icy rain, headwinds, and temperatures just above freezing—triggered asthma and symptoms of hypothermia, he said, and he dropped out around the 19-mile mark.

He and his Oregon Project coach Alberto Salazar made a quick exit from New England to head home to Portland and regroup. Rupp, the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist in the marathon, then decided to compete in Prague on Sunday, where he captured the win and took more than three minutes off his personal record, finishing in 2:06:07. (His previous best was 2:09:20, when he won the 2017 Chicago Marathon.)

Rupp and Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia battled until Rupp broke away with about 4K to go. Lemma placed second in 2:07:03. Stephen Kwelio Chemlany from Kenya was third in 2:09:42.

“Sisay is a really great marathon runner,” Rupp said, according to a press release. “It was no easy feat and I’m really pleased I managed to defeat him and win.”

The time makes Rupp the second-fastest American marathoner in history, behind Khalid Khannouchi, who holds the American record of 2:05:38, which he set at the 2002 London Marathon.

In other notable weekend racing, Americans competed for the U.S. half marathon title on Sunday in Pittsburgh. Chris Derrick, 27, from the Bowerman Track Club, in Portland, won the men’s race in 1:02:37 and Aliphine Tuliamuk, 29, from Northern Arizona Elite, in Flagstaff, was first for the women in 1:10:04.

It is Derrick’s first

The American bounced back from his Boston disappointment with victory in the Czech capital.

Galen Rupp took more than three minutes off his personal as he clocked 2:06:07 to win Prague Marathon on Sunday (May 6).

After coming through halfway in 63:01 the 31 year-old made the decisive break on Ethiopia’s Lemma Sisay at the 24-mile mark and went on to win by almost a minute. Rupp’s winning time is the fastest by an American-born athlete on a record-eligible course.

Sisay finished in 2:07:03, with Kenya’s Chemlany Stephen Kwelio third in 2:09:42.

“Sisay is a really great marathon runner, it was no easy feat and I’m really pleased I managed to defeat him and win,” said Rupp at the finish. “I tried to keep a check on my pace, to get into it and stay positive. I’d like to say thanks to Carlo and his RunCzech team for inviting me to Prague and for making it possible for me to be the first American to win here, and to do so in such a good time too.”

The two-time Olympic medalist’s victory comes 20 days after he dropped out of the freezing cold Boston Marathon at around the 19 miles after difficulty breathing and experiencing symptoms of hypothermia.

The conditions in the Czech capital were certainly a lot more favourable for fast times and the American sliced a huge chunk off his 2:09:20 best set in Chigaco last year.

Rupp is now the third quickest USA athlete ever over 26.2 miles behind Ryan Hall (2:04:58) and Khalid Khannouchi (2:05:38).

On record-eligible courses, he goes to number two behind Moroccan born Khannouchi, with Hall’s 2:04 set at the non record-eligible Boston Marathon.

It is a second win and PB in Europe this year for the Chicago Marathon champion who clocked 59:47 at the Rome half marathon in March to take 43 seconds off his 2011 best.

Kenya’s Bornes Jepkirui Kitur won the women’s marathon in 2:24:19 ahead of Ethiopia’s Belaynes