The Everest Marathon
Nepali’s Dominate, but Roka Loses His Crown
24.11.2003
Three times winner Hari Roka was with the leading runners up to the half way mark in the tenth Everest Marathon, but from there the pace of other Nepali athletes proved too much and he finished in 4.45.36, slipping back to 11th place, his lowest position ever. He is now a veteran runner (although the Nepali year is a month shorter than ours so it’s a bit hard to judge!), but he missed out on Ray Brown’s vets record of 4.28.38 too. He’s still the race record holder though, as the clear winner, 30 year old Uttam Kumar Rai recorded a time of 4.01.44, well outside the record of 3.50.23. It was the first race for some years where the winner didn’t break the 4 hour barrier, but Uttam wasn’t pushed to run any faster, the first Rai to win the race he was almost 12 minutes clear of the second placed runner, Sumba Sherpa. (He was ‘fresh’ from winning a French race less than a week ago!) Uttam now goes on to the All Time winners list in 7th place.
The Nepali dominance of the race continued. In the last race in 2002 they took all but one of the first 15 places (Mark Hartell from the UK was 4th) and 16 of the top 20 – this time it was the top 12 and 18 of the top 20 places. Dan Golding of the UK was the highest placed visiting runner in 13th place and Matin Pengilly the only other non-Nepali in the top 20. Robin Carter was the ladies winner (and ladies vets) and it was her second win, but the first time she has run the full course. She won the shortened 1995 race.
[The full results are listed on the next page and we hope to have more stories and news from the race soon.]See All Event Posts
