Arkhipova Yatich win 2009 Baltimore Marathon

Alphonce Yatich took first place in the Baltimore Marathon today with a time of 2:14:04, marking his first marathon win. Yatich, a 25-year-old from Kenya, didn’t beat last year’s event record of 2:11:56 set by Julius Keter.

Yatich and Keter, the defending champion, were keeping pace with each other until about mile 20, when Yatich pulled ahead for the rest of the race.

“I felt great,” Yatich said through a translator. “The win took me by surprise because I didn’t know if I’d be able to keep up my pace.

“At the beginning of the race, the weather conditions were good, but I think I would have done much better if it hadn’t started to rain,” he said.

Iulia Arkhipova, 25, of Kyrgyzstan won the women’s race with an official time of 2:32:09, shattering the previous record of 2:35:45. She also beat her own personal best of 2:34:10 set in the Frankfurt marathon 2007.

Arkhipova said, through a translator, that it felt great to break the race record in her first time running the Baltimore Marathon.

“I am very happy and very surprised,” she said. “The course is not easy because there are a lot of hills and there were strong winds.”

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