Gent course record victory encourages ace Kiplangat
Victor Kiplangat beats the field to win his debut 42km race at the Istanbul Marathon on November 7, 2021.FILE PHOTO/ COURTESY
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Such is the confidence the 22-year-old is oozing before featuring at a full marathon in Europe next month. Granted, he has already beaten the 42km qualifying mark of 2:11:30 to the Eugene Worlds
Marathoner Victor Kiplangat and his Dutch management Global Sports Communication (GSC) are confident he can earn a slot to the Eugene World Championships due July in Oregon, USA after his Gent Half-Marathon victory at the weekend.
Kiplangat won the 21km race in a time of one hour and 11 seconds on Saturday.
“Good run for Victor,” his manager Jurrie van der Velden said via phone. “We had hoped he would do sub-60 and win. I think seeing the run, he’s in that kind of shape. So we are happy.” This marked Kiplangat’s only second career 21km victory after conquering the Paderborn Half-Marathon in Germany on April 20, 2019.
Such is the confidence the 22-year-old is oozing before featuring at a full marathon in Europe next month. Granted, he has already beaten the 42km qualifying mark of 2:11:30 to the Eugene Worlds.
That is after winning his debut at the Istanbul Marathon in Turkey in 2:10:18 last November. But Kiplangat, by competing in Gent, was finetuning himself before attempting a quicker display over the marathon in April. Eight men have qualified for Oregon but Kiplangat’s time from Istanbul places him seventh on the list yet Uganda has three quota slots for the 42km do at the biennial event.
And Kiplangat could have easily beaten his own personal best of 59:26 in Gent but the conditions were tough. “It was windy and so, not easy for a solo run,” added Jurrie.
