Mashariaz: First Lady Margaret Kenyatta makes history by finishing London marathon

Sunday, 13 April 2014

First Lady Margaret Kenyatta makes history by finishing London marathon

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Kenya’s First Lady Margaret Kenyatta made history on Sunday after finishing the 452 km London Marathon. Mrs Kenyatta was met at the finish line by her family who included Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The First Lady finished the race in 07:05:28 hours.
In the men’s race, world record holder Wilson Kipsang won the Marathon on Sunday, finishing in a course record time of 2:04:27. Stanley Biwott finished second with a personal best of 2:04:55 while Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia finished third in 2:06:30.
In the women’s event, double World champion Edna Kiplagat finally exorcised the demons that saw her playing second fiddle in the last three years to win in 2:20:19. Florence Kiplagat, who broke the World Half Marathon record two months ago settled for second in 2:20:22 with multiple World and Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia, making her debut over the distance, finishing third on 2:20:33.

Earlier this month, the First Lady summed up here motivation to run the marathon:’
“On the 13th of April this year, I will participate in the London Marathon. I will run to make a difference. I will run for the possibility of a healthy generation that is HIV-free, for the elimination of HIV transmission from mother to child. I will run to raise funds to increase access to better health care through mobile clinics that will bring services closer to Kenyans. I will run to keep mothers and newborns alive.”
“As I run, I will be thinking how every mother needs to see her children grow up and how devastating and heart breaking it is for a mother to lose her child. I will be thinking of the children left without a mother because they could not access proper health care. I will run because I am a mother, and I believe motherhood is a blessing not just to a woman, but to a nation. I will run because every mother should be able to hold her baby and take her baby home, and that baby should live to be strong and have many more birthdays. I will run until we go beyond zero.”