Kastor wins women’s London marathon with personal best

By John Mehaffey

LONDON (Reuters) – Olympic bronze medallist Deena Kastor
cruised to an untroubled win in the London marathon on Sunday
after an early break split the elite women’s field.

The 33-year-old American, winner of last year’s Chicago
race, clocked a personal best of two hours 19 minutes 36
seconds in a perfectly judged race on a cool wet morning.

Kastor joined Kenyans Susan Chepkemei and Saina Kosgei in a
break within the first three km behind two male pacemakers.

The trio went through 15 km in 49 minutes 41 seconds before
Kosgei dropped off the pace.

Chepkemei tracked Kastor until 25 km when the American
pulled away.

She passed the 30 km mark in 1:39:08 and held on to win
ahead of Russian Lyudmila Petrova who made a late run to
relegate Chepkemei to third place.

Kastor, a former track runner, ran her first marathon in
New York five years ago. She clocked her previous best of
2:21:16 when she finished third in the 2003 London race and in
the following year she became the first American to win an
Olympic medal since Joan Benoit who finished first at the 1984
Los Angeles Games.

This month she warmed up for the London race by breaking
her Amercian half marathon mark of 67 minutes 34 seconds while
finishing second in Berlin.