Kenya’s Lawrence Cherono and Nancy Jelagat take wins at Valencia marathon 

Kenya’s Lawrence Cherono won the Valencia Marathon on Sunday after an incredible men's race that went down to the wire.

Cherono finished fourth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic marathon that was won by Eliud Kipchoge.

He crossed the finish line first in Valencia with a time of 2:05:12 after a hard fought last 500m where he passed Ethiopia’s Chalu Deso and compatriot Philemon Kacheran.

Pre-race favourite Geoffrey Kamworor ran his personal best of 2:05:23 and finished fourth.

Nancy Jelagat won the women's race with a time of 2:19:31.

Valencia Marathon: Cherono's tactical race

Cherono, the 2019 Chicago and Boston marathon winner, stayed within a touching distance of Sunday's pacers for most of the race before he finally took charge at the 35km point.

Cherono and Deso exchanged positions as it seemed the race would settle to the all-familiar Ethiopian-Kenyan duel.

But Kacheran, running in his third marathon this year, had managed to catch up with the two leaders in the last 3km.

It seemed like Kacheran had the race sealed up until the last 500m. Cherono, who lost the race last year with 300 metres to go, sprinted forward to cross the line first.

Kamworor, running in his first marathon since he was hit by a motorbike while training in June 2020, just missed the podium. The Kenyan made a huge improvement of his personal best of 2:06:12 which had stood since Berlin 2012.

Valencia Marathon: Nancy Jelagat's big win

Nancy Jelegat had a sterling debut in Valencia winning her first major race with a time of 2:19:31. It soundly beat her previous personal best of 2:36:22 when she won the Treviso marathon in 2019 in Italy.

Ethiopia’s Etagegne Woldu (2:20:16) and Beyenu Degefa (2:23:04) finished in second and third respectively.