Pre-race favourite Dominic Ngeno fell agonisingly short of setting a course record in winning Sunday’s Perth Running Festival Marathon.

Ngeno was on track for a 2 hour 12 minute finish, but was exposed to brutal head winds across the final 9km, and finished nine seconds off the record in 2hr16min52sec.

Japan’s Ryoma Takeuchi ket pace with the Kenyan til the 20km mark when Ngeno broke away. Takeuchi finished second in 2:17.45.

Matt Smith took out the State championship, finishing third in 2:19.49, a personal best.

Kenya’s Antonina Kwambai won the women’s marathon 2.28.06, a course record, in what was regarded as the run of the day.

WA veteran Nera Jareb was the first West Australian home in 2:44.48. NSW runner Brooke Willams was third in 2:48:06.

Matt Ramsden took out the men’s half marathon in 1:09.41, while Amy Buckingham was the women’s winner in 1:21:53.

Max Shervington won the men’s 10km event in 31:11, with Rachel McCormick the women’s winner in 35:36.

Dante Armstrong took out the men’s 4km dash in 11:34. Mace Hehir won the women’s in 13:30.

A sold out field of 18,500 registered runners will compete across the marathon, half-marathon, 10km and 4km.

The marathon field of 5500 was the biggest ever staged in WA with 58 countries represented.

AFL legend, Channel 7 broadcaster and Telethon ambassador Kane Cornes completed yesterday’s marathon in 2:54:25 and will run another 42km around Rottnest Island on Thursday to raise money for sick WA children.

Now in its third year, the Perth Running Festival has raised more than $600,000 for Telethon.