{"id":63088,"date":"2026-05-10T21:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T21:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/63088\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T21:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T21:00:14","slug":"kemboi-reigns-again-as-kenyans-sweep-top-five-in-geneva-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/63088\/","title":{"rendered":"Kemboi reigns again as Kenyans sweep top five in Geneva marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collins Kemboi at last year’s Geneva marathon. \/FILE<\/p>\n

\u200eCollins Kemboi successfully defended his Geneva Marathon crown in Switzerland on Sunday, spearheading a dominant Kenyan 1-5 sweep in the men\u2019s race.
\n\u200e
\n\u200e<\/p>\n

Kemboi surged to slice through the tape in 2:08:52, holding off compatriot Silas Too who timed 2:09:16 for second place as Simion Tarus completed the all-Kenyan podium in 2:09:53.
\n\u200e \n<\/p>\n

\u200eVincent Kiprono sealed fourth place in 2:11:49 while Mark Kiptoo rounded off Kenya\u2019s remarkable clean sweep of the top five positions after stopping the clock at 2:12:20.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eEdwin Koech also added to the Kenyan charge, finishing seventh in 2:17:52.
\n\u200e<\/p>\n


\n\u200eKemboi\u2019s successful title defence came exactly a year after he first conquered Geneva, where he captured the 2025 crown in 2:11:37 ahead of Elvis Cheboi (2:12:16) and Martin Cheruiyot (2:16:31).
\n\u200e
\n\u200e<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old has steadily carved out a growing reputation in the marathon ranks since stepping up to the 42km distance in 2024.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eKemboi announced his arrival on the marathon scene with a winning debut in Munster, Germany, where he also marshalled Kenya to a commanding top-four sweep.
\n\u200e \n<\/p>\n

\u200eHe produced 2:10:52 on debut as Barnabas Kipyego (2:14:48), Martin Cheruiyot (2:15:48) and Erick Ndiema (2:16:02) completed the Kenyan dominance in second through fourth places.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eHis second outing over the distance came at the Guadalajara Marathon in Mexico, where he narrowly missed the podium after clocking 2:19:47 for fifth place.
\n\u200e<\/p>\n


\n\u200eThat race was won by Kenya\u2019s John Kimaiyo in 2:14:22 ahead of Morocco\u2019s El Mahjoub Dazza (2:16:02) and Uganda\u2019s Ben Somikwo (2:18:07).
\n\u200e
\n\u200e<\/p>\n

Kemboi\u2019s third marathon appearance proved to be the breakthrough moment where he claimed the Geneva crown in 2025 for the first time before successfully defending it on Sunday in his fourth outing in the marathon. \n<\/p>\n

\u200e
\n\u200eMeanwhile, runner-up Too was fresh from another impressive second-place finish at the Hong Kong Marathon on January 18.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eThe Kenyan clocked 2:09:56 in Hong Kong, finishing behind Ethiopian Melaku Belachew, who triumphed in 2:09:39.
\n\u200e \n<\/p>\n

\u200eTarus, on the other hand, was making his first road appearance of the 2026 season after winding up his 2025 campaign with a fifth-place finish at the Porto Marathon, where he timed 2:15:50.
\n\u200e<\/p>\n


\n\u200eIn the women\u2019s race, Patience Kimutai powered to victory in 2:30:45 ahead of Swiss athlete Fabienne Schlumpf, who settled for second in 2:31:15, while Kenya\u2019s Jackline Chepkoech completed the podium in 2:31:18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collins Kemboi at last year’s Geneva marathon. \/FILE \u200eCollins Kemboi successfully defended his Geneva Marathon crown in Switzerland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[65,34559,15811,34561,34563,34557,34560,28790,34558,34562],"class_list":{"0":"post-63088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-geneva","8":"tag-geneva","9":"tag-kenya-news","10":"tag-star","11":"tag-star-news","12":"tag-star-news-kenya","13":"tag-star-newspaper","14":"tag-star-newspaper-kenya","15":"tag-the-star","16":"tag-the-star-kenya","17":"tag-the-star-newspaper"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116552297783143072","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}