Ethiopia's Deriba Merga, who won the elite men's race in the USD 1,55,000 Sunfeast World 10K Bangalore 2009 event, clocking 28 minutes and 13 seconds here yesterday, said that the pleasant Bangalore weather helped him with his smooth run. "I just hit the front and ran. The course was flat and the Bangalore weather was good," said Merga.

Too good
Kenyan Mark Kiptoo came second, clocking 28 minutes and 15 seconds followed by Bernard Kipyego (Kenya) at 28 minutes and 24 seconds. Kiptoo rued the fact that he lost out on the winner's prize by a small margin.

"I knew Merga would run a fast race. My strategy was to just keep up with him and try and overtake him towards the end but he was too good," said Kiptoo.u00a0 Merga continued his rich vein of form after his conquests in the Houston and Boston marathons. He also emerged a winner in the Delhi half-marathon in 2008. Around 23,000 people from all walks of life participated in the event. Another Ethiopian Mergia Asslefech won with a timing ofu00a0 32 minutes and eight seconds in the elite women's section.

In the Indian women's category, Kavita Raut of Maharashtra and winner of the 2008 Delhi half-marathon claimed top honours by clocking 34:32.