The 2018 Berlin Marathon course record holder, Gladys Cherono returned home on Wednesday morning following her exploits in Berlin Sunday.
Songs and dance rant the air as the two time Africa athletics champion arrived at the Eldoret International Airport with her husband Joseph Mbambok leading other family members ready to receive her.
The family waited patiently in the chilly morning weather, as they broke into song and dance as they welcomed the queen of Berlin marathon after she won her third title and defending her 2017 title, winning with a course record of 2:18.11.
The dance attracted other travellers, who, without asking joined the dance before boarding the planes, as traditional Kalenjin sour milk (Mursik) was served diligently.
Cherono said her purpose was to defend her title and not the world record while competing at Berlin marathon.
“My success story was to defend my title not breaking the world record. I have achieved my goal of both winning the race and breaking the course record that had stood for long,” said Cherono.
World record was not in my mind because I wanted to defend my title,” she added.
She said that the main challenge was that she was the defending champion and everybody was looking at her performance and running skills.
“As a defending champion, it was challenging because I needed to continue with my winning formula which I made it true,” said Cherono.
Cherono beat the race favourite Tirunesh Dibaba from Ethiopia who finished in third place in 2:18.55 with Ruti Aga coming home second in 2:18.34. The former world half marathon champion broke the course record of 2:19.22 that was set in 2005 by Japanese Mizuki Noguchi.
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