NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 30 – Margaret Wangari earned Kenya its second medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom, winning silver with a second-place finish in the women’s marathon won by Australia’s Jessica Stenson.
Stenson peeled away from the Kenyan in the final four kilometres of the race to maintain a steady gap and sprint to gold, clocking 2:27:31.
Wagari who was Kenya’s lone athlete in the race timed a new personal best time of 2:28:00 for second place, defending champion Helalias Johanes of Namibia finishing third for bronze 39 seconds behind in 2:28:39.
The Kenyan maintained a steady pace over the final five kilometres of the race to assure herself of a medal, having perched in the leading pack for most of the race.
Australian Stenson and defending champion Johanes had led for most part of the race until they all decided to bolt out.
At the 32km mark, Johanes began to tire off and suddenly dropped off the pace with the Australian and the Kenyan now taking charge. But slowly, Stenson injected some tempo of pace and began to drop off the Kenyan.
At the 40km mark, she had established a 19 second lead and scaled through the final uphill part of the course to win, Wangari managing to hold steady for second.
