Iita wins silver in North Korea

REINHOLD Iita put in a great performance to finish second at the Mangyongdae Marathon which recently took place in North Korea.

In a sprint to the line, Iita was just pipped by Wang Ze Min of China who won the event in two hours 14 minutes and 21 seconds. Iita finished two seconds behind, with Jackson Rono of Kenya coming third in 2:14:37.
The race could have been won by any of six athletes who entered the final straight together, finishing within 30 seconds of each other.
Iita was ecstatic with his achievement.
‘I ran a great race and I’m very happy with my performance. I ran against a top class field including runners from China, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Korea and managed to stay with the leaders till the end. With a bit of luck I could have won the gold medal, but I was beaten by a Chinese runner in a sprint to the line,’ he said.
Iita’s time was by far the fastest by a Namibian over the past decade and improved his previous personal best by close to 12 minutes. It was an astounding achievement, coming in only his fourth attempt at the 42,2 km marathon event.
Iita set his personal best of 2:26:10 at his first marathon attempt at the 2006 Lucky Star Marathon. The following year he came 10th in a slow time of 2:45:34 while he also participated at the Mangyongdae Marathon which he failed to complete due to injury.
With his time Iita comfortably qualified for the senior World Athletics Championships which will be held in Berlin, Germany in August. He is the first Namibian athlete to qualify for the World Championships since Agnes Samaria and Frank Fredericks.
The chairman of Windhoek Harriers Club Charles Gordon said it was one of the best performances by a Namibian athlete in recent years.
‘It was an excellent performance and the fastest time by a Namibian for quite a while. To run such a time in only his fourth marathon is quite exceptional and he is now undoubtedly our top male marathon runner,’ he said.
The Namibian marathon record is still held by Luketz Swartbooi who ran a time of 2:09:08 in Boston, United States in 1994.
– namibiasport.com.na