Kenyans top St Sylvester race

Kenyan duo Pasalia Kipkoech and James Kipsang won their respective 15 kilometres St Sylvester Corrida races in Brazil on Thursday.

Kipkoech beat home Serbia's two-time winner Olivera Jevtic while Brazilian Marily Dos Santos was third in a time of 52 minutes 30 seconds.

Two of the race favourites, Kenya's Margaret Okayo, a two-time New York champion and who holds the record for the Rio de Janeiro Half-Marathon, and Ethiopia's Ymer Wude, who won this race last year, failed to live up to their billing and finished outside the first five.

Kipsang took his chance metres from the line, edging out two other Kenyans, Elias Kemboi and three-time winner Robert Cheruiyot, in an official time of 44 minutes 40 seconds.

Gebrselassie wins

Ethiopia legend Haile Gebrselassie won the Trier Corrida in Germany on Thursday as he warms up for this month's Dubai Marathon.

The 36-year-old won the eight-kilometre event in a time of 22:22, 19 seconds outside the race record set in 1996 by Kenyan Peter Githuka.

The Ethiopian hopes to improve in Dubai on January 22 his marathon world best of 2:03.59 set in Berlin in September 2008.