Winners1. Dieudonne Disi(RWA)-63:052. Wilson Chebet(KEN)-63:183. Festus Langat(KEN)-63:34 Rwanda’s Dieudonne Disi is $50.000 richer after winning the AFN/GLO Lagos International half marathon race held in the Nigerian commercial capital on Saturday.It was yet another perfect performance for Disi after he produced a stunning performance in Udine at the World Road Running Championships in October where he finished sixth in 59:32 setting a new national record.Disi started the race very slowly and was at the front of a lead pack of twelve from 4km.In the 13th kilometre, Disi broke away from his last remaining opponent Kenya’s Wilson Chebet and was never seen again, winning in 63:05.Disi, who won the Delhi Half Marathon on 28 October with a personal time of 60:43, was followed home in Lagos by Chebet who led a large posse of Kenyans. The victory brought Disi a prize of $50,000 (about Frw27 millions).Kenyas Wilson Chebet was second in 1:03.18 while compatriot Festus Langat was third in 1:04.34. Both Kenyan internationals bagged $25,000 and $15,000 for second and third place finish respectively.Speaking to Times Sport by telephone on Saturday hours after his latest win, Disi said, “I was not quite sure whether I would produce this great performance but I had one thing in mind and that was to do better than I did last year,”Disi was third in last year’s edition which was won by Kenyans Francis Kibiwott and compatriot Solomon Busendich took second.He is the first Rwandan athlete to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games with his time of 27:22:23 in 10.000m at the Memorial Van Damme race held in Belgium, which also helped him surpass the minimum required standard A time (for the Games) 27:50.00.In the womens event, Lineth Chepkirui of Kenya posted a time of 1 hour, 12 minutes 6 seconds to claim the top prize-money of $50,000.She was followed by her compatriot, Mary Keitany, who returned in 1:15.10 to claim $25,000 while another Kenyan, Irene Kipchumba, placed third in 1:15.21 to settle for $15,000.This year’s 6th edition of the AFN/GLO international half marathon race consisted of more than 40,000 runners coming from Cameroon, Eritrea, Ghana, Italy, Ivory Coast, Lithuania, New Zealand, Qatar, Tanzania and hosts Nigeria.Ends
