T&T's Tonya Nero ran a season's best of one hour, 18 minutes and 26 seconds, to place 77th out of 90 of the best women runners in the world at the IAAF/Al-Bank World Half Marathon Championships yesterday in Copenhagen, Denmark.This was Nero's second trip to the Championships. In the 2012 edition in Kavarna, Hungary, she finished 27th and set a new national record mark of 1:15.13 for the 13.1 miles road race.Her record run two years ago capped off a successful year as the 25 year old broke national marathon standard clocking 2:43.45 in Rotterdan, Netherlands in April, missing qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics Games by less than a minute (B standard 2:43.00).
Yesterday after the event, she posted on her facebook page: "It was such a great experience. I look forward to improvements."Kenya, as expected, produced a totally dominant performance in the women's race as they reclaimed individual and team honours from their Ethiopian rivals.Gladys Cherono led them home in a season's best of 1:07:29 ahead of silver medallist Mary Wacera Ngugi, who clocked a personal best of 1:07:44, and Sally Chepyego Kaptich, who also produced a personal best on this flat and fast course in 1:07:52.
Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworor of Kenya won the men's title, while five-time winner Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea only came fourth. Kamworor completed the 21.0975-kilometres flat route through downtown Copenhagen in 59:07.He was followed by Samuel Tsegay of Eritrea and Guye Adola of Ethiopia, who were both 13 seconds behind. The trio of Kamworor, Tsegay and Adola managed to shake off Tadese, and the Kenyan then pulled away from his two rivals in the final kilometres.