Mumbai, India – Kenneth Mburu Mungara shattered teammate John Kelai’s dream of winning three consecutive Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathons on Sunday, 18 January, 2009. In winning his third major marathon in a row and $31,000 in prize money, Mungara led a Kenyan sweep of the top three spots. A small band of seven athletes crossed the half-way mark in 65:44, just 4 seconds inside the target time to improve the course record of 2:12:03. But 2 Km later, Mungara, along with countrymen Dan Tarus and Simon Tanui, broke away from the group and increased the pace. Mungara, last year’s victor in Toronto and Prague, surged again when he saw defending champion Kelai closing from behind, and only Rome marathon sixth placer David Tarus was able to stay with him for a while. Running against the clock, Mungara went past the finish-line in 2:11:51 setting a new course record and in that process also bettering the Indian all-comers record held by Shivnath Singh at 2:11:59.4, set in the Indian National Marathon Championships at Jalandhar back in 1978! Tarus (2:12:02) and Kelai (2:12:23) completed the Kenyan sweep. Ethiopian Neguse was fourth at 2:14:04. It was the fifth consecutive victory for Kenyan men at Mumbai after Hendrick Ramaala (South Africa) won the inaugural title in 2004.