Kessio takes marathon honours
Richard Kessio retained his HSBC Bermuda Marathon title with consummate ease.
The Kenyan simply obliterated the field, covering the 26.2 mile racecourse in two hours, 24 minutes and eight seconds to savour a third triumph in this event.
Kessio, 39, underlined his dominance after crossing the finish line nearly ten minutes ahead of Teklu Deneke, of Ethiopia, who clocked 2:34.04.
“The race went good and I enjoyed it,” Kessio said of his convincing win. “I felt pretty comfortable.
“It means a lot to me to come back and defend my title. I really enjoy coming to Bermuda.”
Kessio knocked a few minutes off last year’s winning time of 2:27:08 but was still a fair distance off the 2:17:32 that he produced in 2010 when making his marathon debut on the Island.
“I am happy with my time, but I could have run faster,” he said.
The pre-race favourite broke away from the rest of the field with a small group of runners on the fourth mile.
Kessio and Deneke then reduced the race to a two-man battle after distancing themselves from the lead bunch on the sixth mile.
Kessio all but clinched the race after Deneke dropped off the pace on the sixteenth mile, leaving the former to go the rest of the way alone.
“I had a nice partner [Deneke] but after the fifteenth mile he just dropped, so I had to go by myself,” Kessio said.
Deneke improved on his third-place finish in the previous event and his time by nearly six minutes.
Valentyna Poltavska rounded off the top three overall finishers and was the first female runner across the line.
The 42-year old Ukrainian stopped the clock at 2:56.25.
Canadian Wes Dearborn, who won last month’s BAC Jingle Bell 5K, was the third male runner home in 2:58:22.
HSBC BERMUDA MARATHON
Bermuda unless stated
1 Richard Kessio, Kenya 2:24:08
2 Teklu Deneke, Ethiopia 2:34:04
3 Valentyna Poltavska, Ukraine 2:56:25
4 Wes Dearborn, Canada 2:58:25
5 Frank White, US 3:01:31
6 Wesley Banks, Canada 3:03:20
7 Helmuth Noesner, Germany 3:07:23
8 Gideon Kigotho 3:09:17
9 Andrew Bartlett, US 3:15:48
10 Stephanie Hodge, Canada 3:16:29
11 Jeff Rowthorn, Canada 3:20:08
12 Andrew Lockwood, Canada 3:22:08
13 Harry Duvall, US 3:22:35
14 Jochen Tilk, Canada 3:23:29
15 Rich Partridge, US 3:26:54
16 James Roberts, Britain 3:28:18
17 Heidi Ball, US 3:29:28
18 Miranda Bachman, US 3:32:43
19 Nancy Sinclair, Canada 3:32:56
20 Jessica Laird, Canada 3:33:15
21 Guillermo Rocco, US 3:34:28
22 Antun Duzevic 3:34:45
23 Giuseppe Guglelmucci 3:35:40
24 Dennis Marinac, Canada 3:38:41
25 Conan McIntyre, Canada 3:39:44
26 Laura Wright 3:42:35
27 Tim Dohaney, US 3:43:35
28 Rick Swinson, Canada 3:44:00
29 Denis Rowe 3:45:30
30 Angela Fischer, US 3:48:23
31 Timmy Aquino, US 3:48:51
32 Ros Dalrymple, US 3:49:23
33 Joey Correia, Canada 3:51:18
34 Andrew O’Brien, Britain 3:53:45
35 Michael Vallee, US 3:55:57
36 Erik Balunis, US 3:57:26
37 Mairi Redmond 3:58:23
38 Tiffany Rinne, US 3:59:01
39 Mikaez Rinne, US 3:59:02
40 Chris Holloway, Canada 4:00:54
41 Kimberly McIvor 4:01:03
42 Mark Harris 4:01:59
43 Janelle Grant, US 4:02:25
44 Heather Borsellino, Canada 4:02:31
45 Catherine Gill, US 4:02:55
46 Liz Marzano, US 4:03:10
47 Robyn Humphrey, US 4:03:20
48 Maria Depanfilis, US 4:06:05
49 Jennifer Smialek, US 4:07:48
50 Lindsay Croshier, US 4:07:49
51 Kirsten Kelly, US 4:08:09
52 Nick Williamson 4:08:31
53 Syril Pettit, US 4:10:38
54 Arnold Laroye, France 4:11:48
55 Laura MacDermaid, Canada 4:13:43
56 Sarah Farrar 4:16:35
57 Deirdre Calvert, US 4:17:13
58 Nicole Rozon 4:17:50
59 Ronnie Wong, US 4:18:24
60 Brenda Lynne Yeomans, Canada 4:19:17
61 Brooke Woolnough, Canada 4:20:04
62 Jade Mills, US 4:21:31
63 Jeffrey Mills, US 4:21:31
64 Davon Culley, US 4:23:28
65 Max D’Souza, US 4:23:34
66 Davina Lonsdale, Britain 4:24:11
67 Adele Lonsdale, Britain 4:24:12
68 Elizabeth Scarborough, US 4:25:57
69 Kevin Young, Canada 4:27:50
70 Jeffrey Irvine, Canada 4:28:05
71 Stephanie Young, Canada 4:28:05
72 Veronica Fine, Canada 4:29:30
73 Keith Simpson, Britain 4:33:33
74 Sharon Kroening, US 4:33:49
75 Trey Buttriss, US 4:35:24
76 Calvin Steede 4:40:14
77 Deirdre Ogden, US 4:43:27
78 Paula Rawlings, US 4:53:39
79 Chris Hawksworth, Britain 4:54:28
80 Nirvana MacDonald, US 4:54:32
81 Robert Coniglio, US 4:55:51
82 Bradley Gardner, US 4:56:51
83 Andrea Crouse, US 4:59:27
84 Dennis Wixom, US 5:02:04
85 Damany Phifer, US 5:02:37
86 Nari Malkhasyan, US 5:05:32
87 Marcus Hoige, US 5:05:32
88 Johanna Fawcett, US 5:05:36
89 Joyce Bishop, US 5:05:44
90 Suneela Katikala, Canada 5:05:58
91 Brian Sanders, US 5:14:44
92 Edwina Arorash 5:19:25
93 Christine Mitchell, US 5:21:55
94 Jay Thurlow 5:23:12
95 James Haynes, US 5:30:59
96 Tali Chazan, US 5:36:50
97 Yasushi Kokubu, Japan 5:37:18
98 Portia Boldin, US 5:50:02
99 Shinichi Takahashi, Japan 5:59:27
100 Klaus Westphal, Germany 6:03:02
101 Florence Sharpe-Trott 6:05:27
102 Robyn Belsky, US 6:08:45
