Beijing Olympic Games

Updated: 2007-09-10 From: Xinhuanet

BOGOTA, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) — Angola’s Joao N. Tiamba took first place in Sunday’s half marathon in Colombia’s second largest city Medellin, with a time of one hour four minutes 43 seconds over the 21 km route.

He was just short of the race record of 1:02:53 set by Colombia’s Juan Carlos Gutierrez.

Around 3,000 runners from 150 Colombian cities, and around 100 elite and hobby runners from 21 nations took part in the 80,000 peso (40,000 U.S. dollar) race.

Bogota’s Alirio Carrazco took second place in the men’s competition, and Kenya’s Stephen Tiogora took third.

Peru’s Mariana Portilla took first place in the women’s competition with a time of 1:15:00. Russia’s Ludmilla Petrova tooksecond and Colombia’s Stella Castro finished third.

Colombia’s next major race is the International Border Rescue Race in the Pacific coast city of Tumaco on Saturday.