American Olympian Janet Bawcom places first in the women’s half establishing new event mark. - SAVANNAH, Ga. — More than 17,000 runners took to the streets of Savannah this morning to participate in the 4^th annual Rock ‘n’ Roll Savannah Marathon & Half Marathon

Nicholas Hilton, 25, of Flagstaff, Ariz., came out strong in the marathon, leading the entire way and finishing in 2 hours, 21 minutes and 31 seconds, shattering the course record by eight minutes. Hilton was followed by second place finisher Belay Kassa, 33, of Ethiopia in 2:33:07. Zaven O’Bryant, 28, of Atlanta made his debut in 2:34:45.

“My coach told me to find a race in a location where I wanted to go and I’ve always wanted to visit Savannah and it seemed like a great event so I chose to come here,” said Hilton. “Considering where I’m at with my training right now I’m really, really pleased with how the race went. It was definitely a flat course, with a little bit of roll, which is great and everyone cheering along the course was fantastic.”

Wilson Kipsang added the TCS New York City Marathon crown to his London Marathon title while Mary Keitany made a winning comeback to the marathon after a two year absence - Wilson Kipsang won his third World Marathon Majors race in the space of a little over thirteen months at the TCS New York City Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, as Mary Keitany marked her return to marathon-running after a two year hiatus with victory on Sunday (2).

Prospects of fast times on a notoriously difficult course were thwarted further by the gusting winds which even forced the race organisers to start the wheelchair races in Brooklyn due to high winds on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

The men’s race was an especially tentative affair with a big pack still involved through the halfway point in 66:56.

“This is Your Day”. That was the motto of the BMW Frankfurt Marathon. When Mark Kiptoo was twelve kilometres away from the indoor finish in the Festhalle he felt a pain in his calf muscle and later lost a couple of metres. Trailing the leaders he thought about the motto and told himself: “Just hang on – this could still be my day!” It was indeed. Last year’s runner-up went one better: Kiptoo won the race with 2:06:49 from fellow-Kenyans Mark Kiptoo and Mike Kigen, who ran 2:06:59 and 2:07:08 respectively.

Defending champion Vincent Kipruto of Kenya finished a disappointing 13th in 2:12:09 while highly rated Ethiopian Tsegaye Mekonnen dropped out after the 30 k mark. But another runner besides Kiptoo enjoyed a day to remember: Arne Gabius ran a sensational debut with 2:09:32, which is the first sub 2:10 time by a German since 1990. It is also the third fastest time by a European this year.

There was an Ethiopian victory in the women’s race with Aberu Kebede clocking a fine 2:22:21, which is the ninth fastest time in 2014, discounting the non-record eligible course of the Boston Marathon. Sharon Cherop of Kenya was second with 2:23:44, Ashetu Bekere (Ethiopia) took third in 2:24:59.

Photo: Tsegaye Mekonnen and Meselech Melkamu with the elite race coordinator Christoph Kopp in Frankfurt (PHOTORUN) - None other than the great Haile Gebrselassie, the current Ethiopian record holder in the marathon, has encouraged Tsegaye Mekonnen to attack that same mark in the BMW Frankfurt Marathon on Sunday. It´s also thanks to Haile that Tsegaye has chosen Frankfurt for his latest marathon outing. The 19 year-old teenage sensation clocked a stunning though unofficial world junior best of 2:04:32 when he took the Dubai Marathon in January. Now he hopes to improve this mark and has also set his sights on the personal record of Ethiopia’s superstar: Gebrselassie ran the current national best of 2:03:59 in Berlin in 2008, which was a world record at the time.

While Tsegaye Mekonnen hopes to become the first non-Kenyan men’s champion since 2001 there is also the possibilty that Germany’s oldest city marathon will have its first double Ethiopian win on Sunday. Aberu Kebede and Meselech Melkamu are strong contenders in the women’s race. They all appeared confident in Frankfurt.