The fear that he might not be around for the birth of his first child gave Thomas Kiprotich wings yesterday. The Hong Kong-based Kenyan, spurred by the possibility that his wife Nerida would give birth, ran the race of his life to win the half-marathon yesterday.
Kiprotich set a new Hong Kong mark of one hour, seven minutes and 14 seconds, beating the previous one by nearly 28 seconds - which he set in 2009. He sped around the course in quicksilver fashion so as to be by the side of his wife, who had shown signs of going into labour early yesterday.
'She got up at about 2am in the morning and had pains,' Kiprotich said. 'But then things quietened down and I decided to turn up for the half-marathon. I told her I would finish the race as quickly as I could and to call me if she got any more pains.'
In the end it turned out to be a false alarm. Another one.
The baby was due on Valentine's Day, almost a week earlier. But as of yesterday, there were no signs. Thankfully the father isn't as slow.
'Yes, our baby has been slow in coming,' laughed Kiprotich after his breezy run.
'But I ran as fast as I could for I didn't know what was happening back home. I was just thinking of Nerida and it made me go faster.'