Chelanga Checks In
The competition was as brutal as the weather but after working so hard just to get here, Joshua Chelanga wasn’t about to surrender down the stretch.
Chelanga ran in brisk tandem with his Kenyan countryman, Lazarus Nyakeraka, for the first four miles of Sunday’s Lilac Bloomsday run, then opened a 10-meter lead at the top of Doomsday Hill.
Nyakeraka tried to rally over the deceptively steady incline of the final mile, but Chelanga held on through the final blocks down Broadway to finish first in the men’s elite division.
His time in the first rain-spattered Bloomsday in the 23-year history of the event, 34 minutes, 18 seconds, was 15 seconds better than last year’s winning effort, and a second faster than Nyakeraka’s 1997 winning time over the 12-kilometer course.
Although well off the 4-year-old Bloomsday record of 33:52, set over a somewhat-different layout, Chelanga won impressively, considering it was his third road race in as many weeks.
Nyakeraka - 5 seconds back in second - was running for an unprecedented Bloomsday three-peat. He won here in ‘96 and ‘97.
The 25-year-old Chelanga was again the stronger, although it took him the full 7.46 miles to prove it.
The two separated themselves from the pack about two and a half miles out, when it became a two-man race.
“There was no surprise that coming off great cross country seasons, and with some of the great road times they’ve run lately, that they got after it and ran a fast time today,” said Brad Barquist of Bainbridge Island, who wound up 17th and was the third American finisher. “They were really ready to go.
“Still, it’s hard to take, getting wailed on.”
There was some doubt that Chelanga would show up in race shape after two straight weeks of competition and an eventful trip. He changed planes five times on his way to Spokane from Providence, R.I., where he trains.
But the gloomy 40-degree morning was brightened for him by the $7,000 winner’s share.
Chelanga won the Crescent City Classic in New Orleans two weeks ago and last weekend’s 10K Sallie Mae in Washington D.C.
Nyakeraka grabbed the early lead but soon found his fellow countryman on his shoulder. The lead pair traveled the first four miles unofficially in a fairly quick 18:10.
Chelanga - an impressive fourth in the world cross country championships in Belfast - moved out at the top of Doomsday Hill and put nearly 10 yards between himself and Nyakeraka. His five-mile time was an unofficial 22:36, the fifth-fastest since race officials began recording splits in 1984.
Chelanga seemed to want to relax at the six-mile point as he turned down Lindeke. But just when he seemed to be laboring and appeared to be at his most vulnerable, he glanced back at Nyakeraka - running strongly in second - and put his head down as if searching for another gear.
He found it and held on.
Nyakeraka, who pocketed second-place money of $4,500, was part of a nine-man Kenyan parade across the finish line in front of the Spokane County Courthouse.
Stephen Nyamu was a well-beaten third, followed by Godfrey Kiprotich and Simon Rono. The first-non-Kenyan to finish was Australian Andrew Leatherby, in sixth.
Last year’s winner, Hezron Otwori, settled for seventh. The first American was Chris England, who wound up 12th in 36:32.
Eric Tollefson of Tacoma, who competed at Central Washington University, was the best of the Washington State runners. He was 13th. Barquist finished second in the state division.
2 Graphics: 1. How Bloomsday was won 2. The best finishers