Korir Gets Biggest Win of His Career with Paris Victory in 2:05:49

Published by IAAF on April 12, 2015

Mark Korir caused a surprise when he won the 39th edition of the Schneider Electric Paris Marathon, crossing the line at the IAAF Gold Label Road Race in a personal best of 2:05:49 on Sunday (12).

Korir took more than a minute off his previous best of 2:07:08, set when he finished second at the 2013 Seoul Marathon.

Although he has had some success over shorter distances, particularly 10km and half marathons in South America, this was without doubt the biggest win of his career.

He overhauled his Kenyan compatriot Mike Kigen with just over five kilometres to go, after the latter had tried to run away from the rest of the elite field about 32 kilometres into the race.

The leading pack went through the halfway point in 1:03:23 but the pace steadily increased in the second half of the pace and Kigen passed 35km in 1:44:18.

After the race, Korir admitted: “I didn’t expect to win at all, and I did not expect such a great time. I knew there were a lot of strong guys in the line-up who had run below 2:07, so the victory today was quite a surprise for me.”