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Surprise Ending Twice A Runner-up, Sivou Makes His Mark

East Lyme — It's hard to imagine that anyone in the entire field wanted to win Sunday's sixth annual Mystic Country Marathon more than Dzmitry Sivou.

Sivou, a 32-year old native of Belarus, was the runner-up in the last two East Lyme marathons until his impressive, comeback victory on Sunday gave him his first marathon win on American soil in 2 hours, 22 minutes, 34 seconds.

Sivou went out like a man on a mission from Rocky Neck State Park early Sunday morning, taking the lead from the start before Kenya's Sammy Koskei and Ethiopia's Derese Denyboba overtook him in downtown Niantic.

Sivou fell far behind on the return trip through Crescent Beach and Black Point, but kept enough gas in his tank to overtake Koskei late in the race.

“I am very happy,” Sivou said a few seats down from a stunned Koskei after winning.

Koskei appeared to have the race in hand coming back into Rocky Neck, but Sivou came back from far behind to take back the lead near Bridebrook Park.

Koskei, in his first time running the East Lyme course that features lots of hills and even more turns, did a double take when he saw Sivou catch him near the Lyme Tavern. The Kenyan thought he had the race in hand.

“I didn't know,” Koskei said.

From the start, the race was a three-man pack with Sivou, Koskei and Denyboba setting the pace from the gun. They quickly settled into a pack before Sivou made some headway and took the lead.

After the loop through Giants Neck and Black Point, the runners came down Main Street and past Camp Rell before coming back through downtown. It was there that Koskei made his move. Denyboba went with his continent mate and, running in his first-ever marathon, ran solidly until the last few miles.

“My legs hurt,” Denyboba said.

Sivou made his move at the 24-mile mark after spending a lot of energy just catching up to Koskei.

Larisa Michailova won the women's race in a course record time of 2:43:26.

“I had good form today,” Michailova said. “The course is difficult. There are many hills, many turns.”

Eric Blake of New Britain won the 10-mile race, even after some confusion in the beginning. About 12 runners went off course early on before straightening things out.

“Once I got on track I was running about the same pace I wanted to be,” said Blake, who won the State Open in 1996 as a senior at Lyman Memorial High School. “I was happy with the last six (miles).” Blake said he is in training for the Tucson Marathon on Dec. 10.

“It was more just to come down and get a marathon pace,” said Blake, an assistant men's and women's cross country and track coach at Central Connecticut State University. “I got exactly what I wanted.”

For Dan and Patti Dillon of New London, Sunday was a chance to get a solid 10-mile run in while enjoying a beautiful New England day.

“I ran the Johnny Kelley race and I wasn't sure (about today),” said Dan Dillon, who didn't run for about 10 years after suffering a stress fracture in his foot. “I do sound and I worked in Boston and got home around 4:30 (a.m.). Plus I've had a cold. I thought I was pushing my luck today, but the conditions were perfect.”

Source: www.checkhotnews.com

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Surprise Ending Twice A Runner-up, Sivou Makes His Mark

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