Marathon News - WMM Champ Cheruiyot Joins RAK Half Field

Jan-30-2008

WMM Champ Cheruiyot Joins RAK Half Field
by David Monti
(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, the Kenyan whose bank account was fattened by the $500,000 he won as the inaugural World Marathon Majors champion last year, has joined the field for the Ras Al Khaimah Half-Marathon set for Friday, Feb. 8.

The "RAK Half" as it has come to be known, which was only held for the first time one year ago, has quickly established itself as the world's top winter half-marathon. At last year's competition, Samuel Wanjiru blazed the flat
course in 58:53, then a world record. Wanjiru led two other men, Patrick Makau and Deriba Merga, under the one hour mark. Eight men broke 61 minutes.

Cheruiyot, a three-time Boston Marathon champion, competed in Ras Al Khaimah last year, finishing fifth in 1:00:38. His key rivals in the 2008 edition should be Makau, also of Kenya, and Fabiano Joseph, the Tanzanian who won the world half-marathon title in 2005.

The RAK Half has a $200,000 prize money purse, the largest of any half-marathon.