AP

Kenya's Luke Kibet crosses the finish line to win the men's marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan, on Saturday (last night Caribbean time). Kibet ended Kenya's 20-year wait for a men's world marathon title with a comfortable victory in the first event of the 11th World Championships.

The 24-year-old prison guard overcame searing heat and high humidity to clinch gold in two hours, 15 minutes and 59 seconds. Kenyan-born Qatari Mubarak Hassan Shami was second, more than a minute behind, and Swiss Viktor Rothlin finished third. Kibet loped unchallenged across the line at the Nagai Stadium to become the first Kenyan man to win the world marathon title since Douglas Wakiihuri in Rome in 1987.