Simiu's says he allowed Sawe to take gold in the spirit of sportsmanship

World 10,000m silver medalist Daniel Simiu said the move to let fellow Kenyan Sabastian Sawe take gold in the half marathon at the World Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia on Sunday was in the spirit of sportsmanship.

He said the humane part of him informed his decision because sport is not always about winning.

Sawe pulled away from the field earlier on and was cruising towards apparent victory. Behind him, Sawe was battling Ethiopia’s Jemal Yimer for the runner-up spot.

With less than 200m to go Simiyu let the lead go saluting his passing teammate Sawe in what appeared to be a sign for Sawe to go on and bag gold.

“It is not that I was not strong, I wanted to tell the world that there are good people out there and it’s not always about winning. I wanted Sawe to win because I have been on the world stage so I wanted him to also have a feel,” Simiu said.

He further added that his actions were meant to send a message to the world that there is still hope for humanity.

“I wanted to send a message to the world that there are still humane people out here; that you can come first and give your competitor a chance to also win. It’s not always about winning because if I wanted to, I would have won,” he added.

Kenya, however, went on to sweep the three medals with Sawe leading the pack in a time of (59:10), followed by Simiu (59:14) and Samuel Nyamai who recorded a personal best of 59:19 to take third place. Bernard Kibet came in eighth in a time of 1:00.13.

Simiu was fresh from winning a silver medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August and was in search of a gold medal to add to his collection in Riga.

He further added that he was not done yet and that he was going to relax and start training as he is set to participate in the Delhi Half Marathon scheduled for October 14.

“Next week, I will be in Delhi for the half marathon. The season is not yet over, we are just closing the track season and now we are coming to the road events and after that, we wrap it off with cross country,” he said.

Simiu is also expected to participate in the 45th edition of the World Cross Country Championships to be held in Belgrade, Serbia, on March 30, 2024, as well as the 2024 Paris Olympics slated to start in July as he hunts for the much elusive gold medal.

“World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade is a priority for me. I am also looking forward to feature in the 2024 Paris Olympics. I want to win my first gold medal.” 

Peres Jepchirchir, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist, led team Kenya to a 1-2-3 finish in the women’s half marathon field.

Olympic marathon champion, Peres Jepchirchir dedicated her win in Riga to her husband.

Jepchirchir successfully defended her title clocking a time of 1:07.25 followed by Margaret Chelimo at 1:07.26 with Catherine Reline completing the podium in 1:07.34. Irene Jepchumba finished fifth with a time of 1:08.02.

“I thank God for the win. I didn’t expect to win but I am so happy I was able to go to Latvia and defend my title.”

She also added that she would be participating in the New York Marathon on November 5 after which she would begin preparations for the 2024 Olympics.

“I am going to prepare for next month's  New York Marathon and later start preps for next year’s Olympics and my prayer is to be able to defend my titles,” Jepchirchir said.

Asked about the possibility of breaking the current women’s world record of 2:11, she explained that she was purely going to the marathon to win and not break the record.

“New York is a difficult course and I am eyeing victory and not breaking the record. For now, it is difficult to break the record maybe it will take some time because even the last record of 2:14 took some years to break,” she noted.