OSAKA, August 26, 2007 – Qatar's Mubarak Hassan Shami took silver in the men's world marathon in the opening event of the 11th athletics world championship in Osaka on Saturday. Mubarak Hassan Shami, the Kenyan-born Qatari, was more than a minute behind his former compatriot in 2:17:18, while Viktor Roethlin from Switzerland finished third in 2:17:25.

Kenya's Luke Kibet ended his country's 20-year wait for a men's world marathon title when he ran to a comfortable win.

The 24-year-old prison guard overcame scorching heat and high humidity to take gold in two hours, 15 minutes and 59 seconds.

" After 90 minutes of the race Kibet surged away from a leading pack containing compatriot William Kiplagat, Shami and Eritrean Yared Asmarom.

"We were going so slow, I thought if we kept up that pace it would be a 2.20 or 2.30 time so I decided to go," Kibet added.

By the 35km mark, Kibet had opened up a 23-second lead over Shami and went on to cross the finish line unchallenged at the Nagai stadium, becoming the first Kenyan man to win the world marathon title since Douglas Wakiihuri in Rome in 1987. 

"In the end, the legs were just not moving."

The leading 25 competitors were separated by less than a minute as Uganda's Alex Malinga led the field until just after the 20km mark before Kibet, Kiplagat, Asmarom and Shami slowly pulled away.

Shami, formerly Richard Yatich before being naturalized as a Qatari, said he was carrying an injury and had not felt confident of winning a medal.

"When he (Kibet) started to go, I felt in my legs that I could not match him," Shami said.

"In the end, the legs were just not moving."