Desuyo, Agura bag marathon crowns

Rene Desuyo and Janette Agura ruled the 42-kilometer event of the 2nd Run United Philippines Marathon held Sunday at the SM Mall of Asia grounds in Pasay City.

Desuyo clocked two hours, 34 minutes, and 12.77 seconds for a 10-minute win over runner-up Elkin John Quinto (2:44:34.41). Mario Maglinao (2:49:00.75) finished third.

Agura, De La Salle University-Lipa’s athletics coach, needed one final push to beat Jocelyn Elijera on the women’s side. The 35-year-old crossed the finish line at 3:35:41.82 against Elijera’s 3:36:18.82. Gella Mayang placed third with a time of 3:53:56.07.

Close to 3,000 runners joined the full marathon, which started in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City. More than 9,000 were spread out in the 21K and 10K races.

It was a Kenyan sweep in the foreigner's division with last year’s third-place Jackson Chirchir (2:27:54.01) besting compatriots Douglas Mwitti (2:34:33.76) and Philip Ronoh (2:48:37.75).

Another Kenyan ruled the women’s class as Suisan Jemutai (3:24:28.76) outpaced Cambodia’s Nary Ly (3:29:49.57) and Singaporean Camilla Chua (3:42:41.57).

All top three finishers in the men’s and women’s 42K race, both local and foreign classes, received P25,000, P18,000, and P12,000, respectively.

The 21K finishers were Samuel Tarus Toong Zoot of Kenya (1:14:29), Bunting Henn (1:16:12), and local bet Ben Rana (1:18:57) in the men’s division while it was an all-Filipino sweep in the women’s class with Nhe Ann Barcena (1:29:23) besting compatriots Alexis Cassap-Henson (1:40:13) and Liezl Mahilum (1:40:26).

Richard Salano won the 10K race (32:45) to prevent Kenyan Benjamin Kipkazi (32:52) to take first place while former duathlete August Benedicto placed third (37:12). Nancy Papaya (48:17), Edith Felix (55:09), and Bic Ferreria (55:51) were the top three finishers in the women’s division.