Tavengwa fails in London

the women’s marathon event.
Tavengwa was forced to pull out of this race at the 27km mark through injury, shattering her hopes of making an impact at these Games in which Zimbabwe are yet to pick up a medal after nine days of action at the world’s biggest sporting exravaganza.
The Kenya-based athlete was nowhere near the leading bunch in the opening 20km of this race and later called it quits as the temperatures rose in this fast-paced race.
Team Zimbabwe’s Press Attache at the London Games, Imelda Shoko, later confirmed yesterday that Tavengwa had problems with her legs in the women’s marathon and had no choice but to pull out of it.
“Sharon said she was experiencing some pains in her legs and she couldn’t carry on . . . She pulled out of the race and It’s very unfortunate but these things happen in sport.
“The physiotherapist is now looking at her after she first went to the clinic for treatment,” Shoko said.
Tavengwa (29), who arrived here carrying a knee injury, was part of 11 athletes who failed to finish yesterday’s women’s marathon which was won by Ethiopia’s Tiki Gelana in a new Olympic record time of 2 hours 23 minutes 07 seconds.
The race had a field of 118 athletes and  Gelana held off Kenyan Priscah Jeptoo to win gold in a soggy Olympic women’s marathon yesterday.
The Ethiopian made a move with just more than one kilometre to go to win this race, hitting the tape first in the shadow of Buckingham Palace.
Gelana finished the race five seconds ahead of Jeptoo who settled for second place in 2:23:12 while Tatyana Petrova Arkhikova of Russia won bronze in 2:23:29.
These were the 100th, 101st and 102nd medals in men’s women’s marathon.
Pre-race favourite Mary Keitany of Kenya came fourth in 2:23:56.
It was Gelana’s first major major championship and she became the second Ethiopian woman to win an Olympic women’s marathon gold medal after Fatuma Roba who triumphed at the 1996 Atlanta Games in the United States.
Ethiopia have now joined Japan as the only country to have won this event twice and Gelana was over the moon after recording her remarkable achievement yesterday.
“It was a great race. I really loved it. The rain makes it very interesting. As soon as the rain started, I said to myself ‘Thank God’. I love running in the rain, I have been doing that since I was a small child. I slipped in the middle of the race and my elbow is still injured. But I didn’t feel any pain during the race.”
On winning the gold medal, Gelana said: “I was confident before the race that I could win it. I have been saving my energy for this. It really paid off. I don’t know what to say. I am speechless.”
And on becoming the second Ethiopian woman to win an Olympic women’s marathon gold after Roba, Gelana said: “Fatuma (Roba) is my hero. I am extremely happy to share history with her. This gold medal is a gift for all Ethiopians.”
And while Gelana was shedding tears of joy after striking gold in the women’s marathon yesterday, the same cannot be said of Zimbabwe’s Tavengwa.
It didn’t quite work out as Tavengwa had intended and she was among 11 athletes who failed to finish the race in yesterday’s women’s marathon which was run in wet conditions.
The marathon course took the competitors past many of London’s most famous sites, including Tralfagar Square, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster, Big Ben, the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge.
And hundreds of Zimbabweans resident here in London and the surrounding areas of the British capital were among thousands of spectators who poured out in the streets of Central London to watch the women’s marathon.
Most of the Zimbabweans were carrying or waving the country’s flag as they came out to give their full support to Tavengwa with the hope that she was going to do the nation proud by, at least, finishing in the Top 20 in yesterday’s race.
But they were left a disappointed lot after Tavengwa called it quits with about 15km to go, hobbling off the tough course after her painful legs gave in in the wet conditions of the race.
Tavengwa was making her debut appearance at the Olympic Games in which she qualified with an A Standard qualifying time and was Zimbabwe’s only representative in the women’s marathon.
She arrived at the London Games hoping to better the results of Linda Elizabeth Hunter and Tabitha Tsatsa the last two women to represent Zimbabwe in the women’s marathon event at the Olympics.
Hunter was the first female road runner to represent Zimbabwe at the Olympics during the 1988 Games in Seoul, Korea, where she was placed 55th in 2:53:17.
Tsatsa was the next Zimbabwean female long-distance runner to be bestowed with that honour at the last Olympic Games in Beijing, China, in 2008. But like Hunter before her, she found the going tough when racing against some of the world’s finest female road runners at the Beijing Games where she came home in a disappointing 49th place in 2:37:10.