{"id":214,"date":"2015-08-03T19:22:31","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T19:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/sports\/smiles-cheers-greet-half-marathon-runners-on-final-full-day-of-special-olympics-2\/"},"modified":"2015-08-03T19:22:31","modified_gmt":"2015-08-03T19:22:31","slug":"smiles-cheers-greet-half-marathon-runners-on-final-full-day-of-special-olympics-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/smiles-cheers-greet-half-marathon-runners-on-final-full-day-of-special-olympics-2","title":{"rendered":"Smiles, Cheers Greet Half Marathon Runners on Final Full Day of the Special Olympics World Games"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\"101<\/p>\n

Onesmus Mutinda of Kenya finishing first at Sunday’s Special Olympics Half Marathon. Photos by Matt Cohn. <\/em><\/p>\n

Onesmus Mutinda of Kenya, who just turned 17, won Sunday morning’s Special Olympics World Games half marathon in dominating fashion with a time of 1:18:06.<\/p>\n

USA’s Karen Dickerson took the women’s gold medal with a personal best time of 1:38:44.  Another USA runner, Alexander Guild, ran the course in 1:34:12, finishing with a fantastic kick that earned him a gold medal in his division.<\/p>\n

Guild, who improved his half marathon personal best by three minutes, has overcome a neurological disorder that prevented him from feeling the sensation of his feet touching the ground.  His strong finish enabled him to beat his Italian division rival, Lorenzo Conterno, by one second. <\/p>\n

\"101<\/p>\n

Two-sport medalist Laurent Praus of Luxembourg (R) was a spectator at Sunday’s race, along with team assistant Marianne Schoenkert.<\/em><\/p>\n

The sun came out halfway through the race on the beach-side course, which was lined with spectators, volunteers, and international athletes such as Luxembourg’s Laurent Praus.<\/p>\n

“The first thing I’m going to do when I return to Luxembourg is show off my gold medal in the 50-meter dash and my silver in the ball throw,” said Praus through his translator and Luxembourg team assistant Marianne Schoenkert. <\/p>\n

\"101<\/p>\n

The “Dream Team,” volunteer students from Los Alisos Middle School in Norwalk, brought maximum enthusiasm to Sunday’s race.<\/em><\/p>\n

The 13-mile foot race was the seventh event held in Long Beach during the nine-day Special Olympics World Games<\/a>, which attracted 7000 athletes from 177 countries to athletic venues at USC, UCLA, downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach.  Long Beach played host to the Triathlon, Beach Volleyball, Cycling, Kayaking, Sailing and Open-Water Swimming competitions, as well as the half marathon.<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to fight back the tears,” said a visibly emotional Diane Reeve, a Registered Nurse with the Special Olympics World Games medical response team. “I’ve smiled all week because watching these beautiful people and their camaraderie and sportsmanship has been a blessing.  I felt very honored to be here.”<\/p>\n

{gallery}matt\/SpecialOlympicsFinalDay\/Gallery{\/gallery}<\/p>\n

Additional Photos:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The course was lined with appreciative fans and supporters.<\/li>\n
  2. The half marathon field at the start\/finish line on Shoreline Drive.<\/li>\n
  3. Xai Xai, runner from Botswana.<\/li>\n
  4. USA runner Karen Dickerson, on her way to a gold medal.<\/li>\n
  5. First-place finisher Onesmus Mutinda of Kenya with his coaches.<\/li>\n
  6. USA’s Alexander Guild bettered his half marathon time by three minutes and won gold in his division.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The USA’s Karen Dickerson dominated the women’s competition in the half marathon on the last day of the Special Olympics World Games Sunday, just one performance in a wealth of inspirational showings by athletes overcoming intense odds. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":16555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[102],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-special-olympics","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}