Athletics: Kenyans sweep Gold Coast marathon

Nicholas Manza broke the 22-year-old race record at the Gold Coast marathon and led a Kenyan sweep of the podium places in Sunday's race.

Manza clocked a winning time of two hours, 10 minutes and one second, beating Australian Brad Camp's longstanding mark of two hours 10 minutes 11 seconds set back in 1989.

He was handed a A$10,000 bonus by race organisers for setting the record.

Albert Matebor was second in 2hr 10min 13sec and Japhet Kipkorir third on 2hr 10min 50sec.

Manza made his winning move at the 36km mark, quickly putting 50 metres between himself and Matebor.

He maintained a 100m buffer for the final 6km.

"It is very special for me to win the race. I am so happy," he said.

"It's hard in Kenya because there are so many marathon runners. A lot of guys run 2hr 05min.

"It's been a great race and it's very special to me because it's my first time in Australia."

Ethiopia's Goitetom Tesema won the women's race in 2hr 30min 08sec, well clear of Queensland's Roxie Fraser (2hr 41min 17sec) and Japan's Chihiro Tanaka (2hr 43min 04sec).

Fraser improved her personal best by over a minute.

- AAP