Kenyans Stephen Sambu and Betsy Saina, both 26, were the men’s and women’s champions at the New Balance Falmouth Road Race on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, Sun., Aug. 17. 

Sambu ran the seven-mile race in 31:46, finishing 45 seconds ahead of defending champion Micah Kogo, 28, also of Kenya, who was second in 32:31. Sambu has the fastest 10K time in the world this year (27:25) and his 45-second margin of victory was the second largest in the 41-year history of this famous race.

Emmanuel Bett, 29, ran 33:01 to give Kenya a sweep of the top three positions.

The first American to finish was Ben Bruce, 31, of Flagstaff, Ariz., who was fourth in 33:21.

Sambu was supremely confident he would win at Falmouth and he had reason to be. After the race he said, “I was confident because I was feeling good all the way.”

By Mile 3 the front-running Sambu had reduced the lead pack to only four, which included his fellow Kenyans Kogo, Bett and Kennedy Kithuka, the 2012 NCAA cross-country champion who was making his road racing debut.

Kithuka would drop off the pace first, followed by Bett soon afterwards. Sambu ran the fourth mile in 4:28 – you heard right, 4:28! – and Kogo lost contact. From that point on Sambu would continue to extend his lead all the way to the finish line.

In case you’re wondering, his 31:46, while impressive indeed, is not a new men’s record for the Falmouth race. The men’s race record at Falmouth is 31:08, set by Kenya’s Gilbert Okari in 2004.

Betsy Saina had a much tougher time of it in the women’s race at Falmouth on Sunday as she ran 35:56 to best Great Britain’s Gemma Steel, 28, by only seven seconds.

The superb American runner Molly Huddle, 29, of Providence, R.I., finished third in 36:15, two seconds ahead of Diane Nukuri-Johnson, 29, of Burundi.

Huddle was leading the front pack of seven at Mile 3 as she ran 5:12 per mile pace and focused on how to best run the straight-line tangents on the curves. American Emily Infeld was right behind her and Gemma Steel of Great Britain, coming off probably the biggest victory of her career two weeks earlier at the TD Beach to Beacon 10K in Maine, was looking strong.

Not only looking strong, but feeling strong, because at Mile 4 Steel tried to break away.

It didn’t quite work, but it certainly did shake things up.

Afterwards Steel said, “I was doing everything I could to get the corners right, but those Kenyan women don’t give up.”

One Kenyan woman in particular. Steel was joined at the front by Betsy Saina, a three-time NCAA champion when she was competing for Iowa State. They ran the fourth mile in 5:06, which resulted in Huddle falling back.

“I couldn’t respond at Mile Four,” Huddle said later. “It was a rough last three miles (for me).”

Nevertheless, Huddle, who set two American records this past summer, would finish in a time (36:15) only two seconds slower than the fastest time ever posted by an American woman at Falmouth, the 36:13 run by Lynn Jennings in 1992.

Saina led through a 5:02 fifth mile with Steel following close behind. And they would continue this duel right to the end until Saina ultimately pulled away.

Attesting to the epic duel they waged, Saina said afterwards, “I felt it was one of my toughest races ever because the road was wide open until the end, when it was just the two of us.”

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