Kenya's Josephat Ongeri won the Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank Marathon on Sunday, beating 2005 champion Andrei Gordeev of Belarus by four seconds.

Ongeri, the 26-year-old runner who was not on organizers' invitation list and paid his own way to Detroit, finished in 2 hours, 18 minutes, 22 seconds. He earned $5,000 (euro3,950) for his first career victory after finishing second in three previous marathons.

Elena Orlova, a 36-year-old Russian who lives near the U.S. capital of Washington, took the women's race for the second time in three years, finishing in 2:41:26.