OromianEconomist

Injifannoo atleetota Oromoo: Oromo Athletes sweep men’s and women’s titles at Boston Marathon with the win for Lemi Berhanu Hayle and Atsede Baysa April 18, 2016

Oromo athletes Lemi Bernanu Hayle and Atsede Baysa won at the 2016 edition of the Boston Marathon, the 120th running of the IAAF Gold Label Road Race, crossing the line in 2:12:44 and 2:29:19 respectively on Monday (18).

It was the first time in the Boston Marathon race’s 120-year history that Oromo athletes representing Ethiopia  had swept both the titles.

Atsede Baysa rallied after falling more than 30 seconds off the pace, overcoming the deficit with a strong push through the final four miles to win the women’s Boston Marathon on Monday.

Lemi Berhanu Hayle won the men’s race after breaking away from defending champion Oromo athlete Lelisa Desisa. Hayle won in 2 hours, 12 minutes and 45 seconds.

The men’s race stumbled through halfway in 1:06:43, looking for someone willing to take command into a slight headwind and with temperatures rising to around 20 degrees Celsius.

After a few small breakaways came to nothing, defending champion Lelisa Desisa, hoping to add a third Boston win to his pair from 2013 and 2015, took charge as the course descended from Wellesley Hills to Newton Lower Falls.

Desisa moved to the front as the pack rolled down the hill and then maintained the pace as they crossed the Charles River and started up the opposite bank in the first of the Newton Hills; he slowed slightly but the rest of the pack slowed more, and abruptly a race which had looked more like a dreary committee meeting became notably more interesting.

Only Hayle stuck with Desisa’s big push, and from that point the race was primarily an Oromo duel for supremacy.

Initially Desisa let Hayle set the pace and hovered behind him waiting to move but he then came to the front and began actively trying to shake the younger runner.

Hayle, at 21 already a winner in Dubai in 2015 and runner-up there this January, also had previous wins in Warsaw and Zurich.

He was confident in his ability to win and his speed – with a best 2:04:33, he was third-fastest among the starters – but had never before a race as big as Boston.

Ultimately Hayle took over at the very end, side-by-side with Lelisa through 40km but then taking charge before the mile to go mark in Kenmore Square and opening a gap of 47 seconds back to the tiring Desisa, who held on for second in 2:13:32.

With the racing beginning a few miles after halfway, the second half was slightly faster than the first, 1:06:01 to 1:06:43 for the first half.

Yemane Tsegay won a close-fought duel with 2012 Boston winner Wesley Korir to make it a 1-2-3 finish for Ethiopia; he ran 2:14:02 to the Kenyan’s 2:14:05.

Baysa, 29 and a two-time Chicago Marathon winner came from 37 seconds at the 22-mile mark to overtake the two women in front of her.

She passed fellow Oromo athlete and sometime training partner Tirfi Tsegaye with two miles left, the latter finishing second in 2:30:03.

Kenya’s Joyce Chepkirui, who was disputing the lead with Tsegaye at 22 miles before Baysa started her long charge for glory, was third in 2:30:50 while fellow Kenyan, defending champion Caroline Rotich, dropped out barely five miles into the race.

The women’s race also started slowly, and it ultimately fell to Kenya’s Joyce Chepkirui to take charge of the pace, although as usual the lead changed frequently in the early miles while efending champion Caroline Rotich stepped off the course at 7km and ultimately dropped out.

Halfway was reached in a pedestrian 1:15:25 and the leaders were close enough that Latvia’s star Jelena Prokopcuka tangled with Oromo athlete Fatuma Sado and knocked the latter’s right shoe loose.

Sado stopped and retrieved the shoe, she and Prokopcuka then worked together to regain contact with the pack. Prokopcuka ultimately finished fourth with Sado 16th.

Much like the men, the women rolled down into Newton Lower Falls at a decent clip but slowed when they met the first hills.

Unlike the men, the pack which rode that roller coaster had thinned to four, featuring  Tirfi Tsegaye and the Kenyan trio of Chepkirui, Valentine Kipketer and Flomena Daniel; with Baysa well off the back.

After Tsegaye and Chepkirui shook the other pair off, it looked like the women’s race was coming down to a head-to-head duel as well, but Baysa had other ideas; she found a second life after cresting the Newton hills at mile 21.

With Tsegaye frequently twisting around to try and gauge the progress of her sometime training partner, Baysa closed a deficit which had grown to 37 seconds at 22 miles, when she moved into third place.

Tsegaye first tried to drop Chepkirui, but Baysa passed first the Kenyan and then her compatriot.

At 40km, Baysa started pulling clear, and she built a lead of 44 seconds, with Tsegaye second in 2:30:03.

Unlike Hayle, Baysa has a lengthy marathoning resume including victories in Chicago in 2010 and 2012, as well as wins in Saitama, Paris (twice), Xiamen, and Istanbul.

Like the men’s race, the women’s winner was faster in the second half. Baysa passed halfway in 1:15:32 and ran the hilly second half of the race in 1:13:47.

Both Kenya and Ethiopia have indicated that Boston results, along with next weekend’s race in London, will figure in selection for their Olympic team.

However, the defending Olympic champion Tiki Gelana was never a factor in the race, finishing 14th in 2:42:38 and Buzunesh Deba, a frequent contender both here and in New York and the only woman in the field to have run under 2:20:00 in Boston, was seventh in 2:33:56.

The 120th running of the Boston Marathon saw 27,491 starters set out on the classic course from the western suburb of Hopkinton to the finish line in Boston.

Read more at:-

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2016/04/18/boston-marathon-womens-mens-winners/83184104/