Kenyan wins S.L. marathon

It was only fitting that a first-time winner was crowned at Saturday's inaugural Salt Lake City Marathon.

Kenya's Gabriel Muchiri, a seasoned distance runner with more than a dozen half and full marathons on his rsum, entered the winner's circle for the first time in his career with a time of two hours 17 minutes and 21 seconds to win the first-ever event.

Muchiri held off training partner Michael Mislay by 10 seconds.

He anticipates returning next year to defend his title.

"The race was very nice and the course is very nice and I want to say thank you to the people," Muchiri said. "Maybe next year we come back to run again."

The closest Muchiri has come to winning a marathon came in the 2003 Quad Cities Marathon in Minneapolis, where he finished fourth with a personal-best 2:14.25.

Muchiri said the course wasn't as hard as he thought it would be, but he fell below his personal projected time of 2:15.

The women's winner was anything but a first-time winner. Russia's Lioudmila Kortchaguina, who now lives in Toronto, posted a 2:30.47, just 50 seconds off her personal best at the 2003 Pittsburgh Marathon, which she won.

In all, Kortchaguina has won seven marathons, including back-to-back wins at the Bermuda Marathon in 2001 and 2002. She finished fifth in the Los Angeles Marathon two months ago.

"It was a beautiful course. I really like it," Kortchaguina said of the layout of the Salt Lake race.

The race began at the Olympic Legacy Bridge at the University of Utah and traversed the neighborhoods of six municipalities before ending at The Legacy Park in The Gateway.

"It was a downhill course," Kortchaguina said. "It was a little easier."

Nearly 3,000 runners participated in the marathon and 2,500 more ran in the 5K, which began at Liberty Park and ended at The Gateway.

Russian Irina Bogacheva, who resides in Gainesville, Fla., finished second in the women's division with a time of 2:33.07.

Lithuanian Mindaugas Pukstas, who now lives in Oklahoma, finished third in the men's division with the time of 2:18.56.

Both Muchiri and Kortchaguina earned $25,000 for winning the event. The marathon paid out a total of $104,000.