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Tokyo Olympics 2021: Oromo/Dutch athlete Sifan Hassan has won unique hat-trick of medals in 10000m (Gold), 5000m (Gold) and 1500m (Bronze). Sifan Hassan is the first athlete in this and other era to win three medals in these events in the same Olympics.
Berhanu Legese and Almaz Ayana win 2017 Airtel Delhi Half Marathon
ByBalbir Singh, Punjab New Express, NEW DELHI, November 20, 2017
Berhanu Legese and Almaz Ayana won the 2017 edition of the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon which lived up to its legacy of being the World’s most prestigious half marathon, with Procam International announcing and delivering a slew of initiatives to be able to provide athletes with a better running environment.
The race turned out to be a bag full of surprises as favourites made way for new champions. The Indians had a fabulous race with Indian elites Nitendra Singh Rawat and L Suriya smashing the course records in their respective categories.
Winner of 2015 Airtel Delhi Half Marathon Berhanu Legese repeated his feat on Sunday winning the Men’s Elite Category in 59:46. Making her half marathon debut, reigning 10,000m world champion and world record holder Almaz Ayana beat the women’s field with 1:07:11.
Legese led Ethiopia’s 1-2 placing with compatriot Andamlak Belihu coming in five seconds later on his debut over the distance and American Leonard Korir came third clocking 59:52. 2017 IAAF World Championships Marathon gold medalist Geoffrey Kirui finished a disappointing sixth with a timing of1:00:04.
Delighted at his repeat feat, Legese said the weather conditions were perfect to go for the kill. “The weather was great, there was no issue at all. In fact the weather was favourable for a run like this. I would love to come back to Delhi to participate in the event again,” said Legese, who clocked 59:20 to win the 2015 Airtel Delhi Half Marathon.
Minister of State (IC) – Youth Affairs and Sports Col (Retd.) Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore flagged off the race. Airtel Delhi Half Marathon International Event Ambassador Anthony Ervin, PUMA legend Anthony Ervin and Honourable Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation Vijay Goel were present at the event.
Nitendra Singh Rawat took home the Indian Elite Men’s title beating defending champion G Lakshmanan in a thrilling photo finish (1:03:53). Rawat and Lakshmanan were neck-to-neck through the entire course. It was the last 100 metres when the real battle started as Lakshmanan and Rawat sprinted to the finish line. In what looked like Lakshmanan would go on and defend his title, Rawat pipped him at the post as his foot touched the finishing line before the defending champions. Avinash Sable came third with 1:03:58.
Heading to the podium, Rawat, Lakshmanan and Sable also beat the course record set by Deepchand Saharan in 2009 of 1:04:00. Rawat said he had a point to prove by winning the race here. “I wanted to prove myself by winning this race so my strategy was to not take lead but keep going on until end. This win will prove that I belong to the national camp,” said Rawat while speaking to media.
Reigning world 10,000m champion Ayana was making her debut over the half marathon distance but hardly looked like a novice as she led home an Ethiopian clean sweep of the podium positions in the women’s race.
The outcome was decided in the final kilometre as she pulled away from her rivals. Ababel Yeshaneh was second again, as she was in 2016, and set a personal best for the second consecutive year as well, crossing the line in 1:07:19 to slice 33 seconds from her personal best. Completing the all-Ethiopian top three, Netsanet Gudeta also set a personal best of 1:07:24 to improve her best by seven seconds.
Asked how she felt to win on her half marathon debut, Ayana said, “There were not many good track competitions so I decided to participate in this event. I always run to win, and this race too wasn’t different,” said Ayana. When asked if she would come back to Delhi after making a winning debut, “Yes, I will come back next year,” Ayana said at her post race interview.
The Indian Elite Women’s category saw L Suriya clinching the top spot. “My coach Surendra sir told me to run my own race and maintain the pace throughout. I just did that but this wasn’t my best honestly,” said Suriya, who won the race by a minute. In the process, the 27-year old from Tamil Nadu set a course record with 1:10:31, beating Lalita Babar’s 2015 record at the event of 1:10:52. Her performance should be good enough to secure her a place on the start line of the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in the Spanish city of Valencia next March, which would be her first global championship outing.
Veteran Sudha Singh came second with 1:11:30 followed by Parul Chaudhary at 1:13:09.
The winners got richer by US$27000 while runners-up got US$20000 and third-placed runners earned US$13000. First placed Indian Elite athletes earned Rs. 3,00,000 with runners up getting Rs. 2,50,000 and third placed runners winning Rs. 1,75,000.
A course record jackpot of Rs. 2,00,000 will be shared amongst all three Indian Elite Men’s winners Rawat, Lakshmanan and Sable while L Suriya will have the entire sum to herself.
The mega event with a participation of over 34,000 would not have been possible without complete coordination and cooperation with the authorities.
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Tirunesh Dibaba has won the women’s field of the 2017 Bank of America Chicago Marathon.
Dibaba beat out defending champion Florence Kiplagat, keeping her from winning her third consecutive Chicago Marathon.
“This is my third marathon and I’m very happy to have won here,” Dibaba said after her win. “I worked very hard for this.”
Dibaba recorded her fastest marathon earlier this year in London, coming across the finish line at two hours, 17 minutes 56 seconds. She is currently the third fastest woman running distances longer than 42 kilometers.
Dibaba picked up three gold medals and three bronze medals from the last four Summer Olympic Games.
The three-time world indoor champion overtook the pacemaker just before the half-way mark, which was reached in 2:42.65, and continued to extend her lead over her younger sister Anna and Morocco’s Siham Hilali.
She went on to stop the clock at 5:23.75, taking almost seven seconds off the world indoor best set by Gabriela Szabo in 1998. Although the 2000m isn’t an official world record event indoors, Dibaba’s performance – pending ratification – can be classed as an outright world record as it is faster than Sonia O’Sullivan’s outdoor mark of 5:25.36.
As well as the outdoor 1500m world record, Dibaba now owns the fastest ever recorded times indoors for the 1500m, mile, 2000m, 3000m, two miles and 5000m.
Elsewhere in Sabadell, European champion Adam Kszczot won the 800m in 1:46.31 with Spanish record-holder Kevin Lopez taking second place in 1:46.58.
European 5000m silver medallist Adel Mechaal was a convincing winner of the 3000m, clocking 7:48.39 to finish more than two seconds ahead of Italy’s Marouan Razine.
Rio Olympics: Almaz Ayaana becomes the new world record holder in 10,000 meters
Oromo athlete Tirunesh Dibaba, winner of the last two Olympic titles, overtook early leader Alice Aprot of Kenya to get the bronze medal in 29:42.56, a lifetime best that was 14 seconds faster than the previous Olympic record she set in 2008.
An Oromo athlete, Almaz Ayana, becomes the fastest runner ever seen before. She ran the fastest 10 000m race in history in 29:17.45 during the 2016 Summer Olympics beating the previous world record by more than 14 seconds, a record that Wang Junxia had held for 23 years. Junxia had held for 23 years.
Almaz Ayana Eba (born 21 November 1991) competes in the 3000 metres and 5000 metres event. She set a new 10000 metres world record, breaking the old one set in 1993, during the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.
She won bronze medal in 5000 m event at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics held in Moscow, Russia. In the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing, Almaz won the 5000m course beating Genzebe Dibaba by a long distance.
Almaz won her first senior title over 5000 metres at the 2014 African Championships in Marrakech, defeating favourite Genzebe Dibaba in a championship record time of 15:32.72. One month later in the same stadium, she won the 5000m representing Africa at the 2014 IAAF Continental Cup by over 24 seconds.
Almaz ran a personal best of 14:14.32 over 5000 metres at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Shanghai in 2015, improving upon her previous record of 14:25.84 which she had set in Paris in 2013. This made her the third fastest female athlete over that distance, behind compatriots Tirunesh Dibaba, the world record holder, and Meseret Defar.
On June 2, 2016 Almaz Ayana ran 5000 metres in 14:12.59 at IAAF Golden Gala in Rome. This made Almaz the second fastest woman ever on 5000 metres, second only to Tirunesh Dibaba, who holds the world record of 14:11.15.
Rio Olympics 2016
The Oromian athlete representing Ethiopia takes 14 seconds off a 23-year-old mark; Molly Huddle breaks the U.S. record.
Last year’s world champion, Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya, took silver in 29:32.53, just off of the previous world record of 29:31.78, set by Wang Junxia of China in 1993. Oromo athlete Tirunesh Dibaba, winner of the last two Olympic titles, overtook early leader Alice Aprot of Kenya to get the bronze medal in 29:42.56, a lifetime best that was 14 seconds faster than the previous Olympic record she set in 2008.
Molly Huddle of USA finished sixth in 30:13.17, an American record that took 9 seconds off the mark Shalane Flanagan set while winning bronze at the 2008 Games. Emily Infeld finished 11th in 31:26.94, a personal best. The third American, Marielle Hall, finished in 33rd in 32:39.32.
Aprot, who had the world-leading time heading into the race, set a fast pace from the start. She led a group of seven through halfway in 14:46.81, just off of world record pace. Huddle ran with the leaders through the first four kilometers, but then fell off, which is understandable given that the leaders passed 5,000 meters just 4 seconds slower than her U.S. record at the distance.
But even Aprot’s pace was too slow for Ayana, who surged into the lead and broke the pack apart with 12 laps to go. She used the same punishing solo front-running style to break Genzabe Dibaba (Tirunesh’s younger sister) in the 5,000 at the world championships last year. Cheruiyot, who has a strong finishing kick, kept Ayana within a few seconds for several laps, but then couldn’t hang on, leaving only the question of by how much Ayana would break the world record.
Ayana, the second fastest in history at 5,000 meters, is new to the 10,000; her Olympic title and world record was only her second time contesting the distance.
Three-time Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele won the men’s race at the Great Manchester Run, finishing the 10km course in a time of 28 minutes and eight seconds.
Tirunesh Dibaba made a winning return to competition after a two year hiatus and she also created a small piece of history by becoming the first woman to claim three victories in the Great Manchester Run, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, on Sunday 22 May 2015.
Keen to blow away the cobwebs in her first race back, Dibaba unusually took up the lead just before the two kilometre mark – a position which she barely yielded for the remainder of her comeback race.
Edna Kiplagat and early leader Diane Nukuri followed in Dibaba’s slipstream through 5km in 15:45 but Nukuri – the multiple national record-holder for Burundi on the track and road – began to lose ground after Dibaba inserted a 3:04 split for the sixth kilometre.
The order remained the same through the eight kilometre mark in 25:03 and for a short while, an upset appeared to be on the cards. Kiplagat moved into the lead for the first time while Dibaba was looking laboured.
But Dibaba stayed in contact before striking the front with about 600 metres remaining. It might not have been a vintage showing but the world 5000m record-holder proved she is likely to be a force this summer on the basis of her victory this morning in 31:16 to move to third on the 2016 world lists.
“I felt a bit nervous [before the race] but I’m happy with my result,” said Dibaba, who clocked 15:31 for the second half. “I did not expect this time; I just wanted to win. I didn’t know what was going to happen and I had no clue about the time.”
Dibaba will turn her focus back to the track with the foremost goal of sealing the qualifying time over 10,000m for the Olympic Games.
“I don’t know exactly where or when I will be running but I expect to run it within a month,” said Dibaba, who hasn’t decided if she will run any shorter races to sharpen up.
While there was a considerable degree of uncertainty in regards to the selection criteria for the Ethiopian marathon team, Dibaba more or less knows what she has to do to gain a place on her fourth Olympic team this summer.
“The federation is going to select the team according to time. The best three times will be selected,” she said.
Kiplagat, 36, finished just outside her long-standing lifetime best of 31:19 in second with 31:25 while Nukuri – who is targeting a top-15 finish in the Olympic marathon this summer – shaved three seconds off her lifetime best in third in 31:49.
On her comeback from a chest infection and virus, Gemma Steel was the top British finisher in eighth in 32:43.
Bekele defeats Kipsang for his second win in Manchester
The men’s race played out in an almost identical manner to the 2014 edition with Kenenisa Bekele cutting loose from Wilson Kipsang in the last kilometre to claim his second victory on Deansgate.
Running less than a month after contrasting fortunes in the London Marathon, Bekele and Kipsang didn’t appear to have the residual effects of that race in their legs as they eased through the halfway mark in 14:17 alongside Australia’s David McNeill and New Zealand’s Zane Robertson.
After a relatively sedate first half, the pace began to increase with Kipsang taking the initiative and by the 8km mark which was reached in 22:40, the pre-race favourites had forged nearly eighty metres on Robertson.
Given Bekele’s awesome pedigree at this distance, the outcome was more or less a foregone conclusion with two kilometres remaining and so it played out with Bekele easing away in the last kilometre.
Bekele said before the race he wasn’t expecting a fast time so soon after finishing third in the London Marathon but the two-time Olympic 10,000m champion, who took a short break after finishing third in the London contest, still broke the tape in 28:08 –after a 13:52 second half– which was faster than his winning time two years ago.
But his chance of winning a fourth Olympic title later this summer appears to be in the balance with the news that he was only named as a reserve on the Ethiopian marathon team.
Kipsang finished second for the third time in four years in 28:15 while McNeill overhauled Robertson for third, 28:39 to 28:54.
Kipsang also missed out on selection for the Olympic Games, although his chances were thwarted after he took a heavy fall at a drinks station around the 10km mark. He said his leg – which became painful after the 25km checkpoint in London – feels fine now, although he still feels some pain in his shoulder.
And had he not fallen, Kipsang is confident he would have kept pace with Eliud Kipchoge and Stanley Biwott in London, who ran 2:03:05 and 2:03:51 respectively.
“Yes, yes, definitely,” he said without hesitation. “I was prepared.”
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.
Oromo athlete Sifan Hassan claimed her first global title in women’s 1500m IAAF indoor Championships Portland 2016. On 19 March 2016, Saturday night, the 23-year-old seizing control of the women’s 1500m final with less than three laps to run and refusing to be passed thereafter to win in 4:04.96.
Hassan was followed by other Oromo athletes Dawit Seyaum and Gudaf Tsegay, who ran 4:04.96 and 4:05.71 respectively to round out the podium.
OMN in Afaan Oromoo interview with Siifan Hasan: Gaaffii fi Deebii gabaabaa Atileet Siifan Hasan Waliin Taasifame.(Bit.21,2016)
Oromo athlete Genzebe Dibaba cruised to victory and her third world indoor title, unchallenged, in 8:47.43 ahead of teammate Meseret Defar (8:54.26) and Shannon Rowbury (8:55.55).
WOMEN’S 3000M FINAL – IAAF WORLD INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS PORTLAND 2016.
Genzebe Dibaba gets a warm congratulatory kiss from her fan
Oromo athlete Yomif Qajelchaa cruised to victory for the world indoor title in men’s 3000m, Portland 2016, 20 March 2016
The 18 year old, Oromo athlete Yomif Qajelchaa went to Eugene in 2014 and won the world junior 5000m title. Last year, he won over the same distance at the famed IAAF Diamond League meeting there and on 20 march 2016 he took the gold medal over 3000m at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.
Injifannoo ilma Oromoo! Baga gammanne! Baga gammaddan! Leenconni imaan ilmaan Oromoo Bitootessa 13 bara 2016 fiigicha magaalaa liverpool Biyya UK irrati ta’ametti injifannoon galuun Alaaba keenya akkanatti addunyaa irratti ol nuf Qaban.
Athlete Dejene Gezimu has won the 2016 Vitality Liverpool Half Marathon and raised Oromo (athletic nation) national flag in the events.
The 22-year-old Oromo athlete, who has a string of other race wins under his belt, recorded a personal best for the half marathon with a time of 01:06:59 – averaging five minutes and seven seconds per mile.
He was 50 seconds faster than his nearest rival, Benjamin Douglas, who was runner-up.
The fastest woman to finish the 13.1-mile course, run in warm sunshine, was Michelle Nolan in a time of 01:20:20 – averaging 6 minutes and eight seconds per mile.
Meanwhile the winners in the 10 mile race were Connor McArdle, on a time of 58 minutes and 41 seconds, and Michelle King in 01:11:26.
Here are the top five male and female competitors in each of the races.
Oromo athletes: Lemi Berhanu surprises while Aselefech Mergia makes magnificent Marathon Comeback in the 2015 Dubai Marathon
Note: 90% of Athletes in the ranking positions are Oromo athletes from Oromia
January 23, 2015 (IAAF) — Ethiopia’s Lemi Berhanu emerged as the unexpected champion at the 2015 Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon, crossing the line at the IAAF Gold Label Road Race in a world-leading time and big personal best of 2:05:28 on Friday (23)
It was not a debutants’ triumph as has been the case for the past three years but it was definitely surprise as the 21-year-old Ethiopian – wearing a bib with his extended family name of Hayle on it – left behind some of the biggest names in long-distance running.
Lelisa Desisa, the 2013 Dubai and Boston Marathon champion, took second in 2:05:52 while Deribe Robi completed the all-Ethiopian podium with a time of 2:06:06.
Fourth was Ethiopia’s Feyisa Lilesa in 2:06:35 followed by two more Ethiopians, Sisay Lemma in a personal best of 2:07:06 and Bazu Worku in 2:07:09. Indeed, the top 12 men were all Ethiopian runners.
Split times of 14:39 for 5km and 29:22 for 10km initially pointed towards a sub-2:04 finishing time.
However, the pacemakers could not sustain the pace and when a group of 15 runners reached the 25km mark in 1:13:57, none of them was left in the race.
Five more runners lost contact during the next five kilometres, among them Kenenisa Bekele.
It was Desisa who surged ahead at the 30km refreshment station to take his bottle. The Ethiopian kept going and five countrymen went with him: Robi, Lemma, Lelisa, Girmay Birhanu and Lemi Berhanu.
Five kilometres from the finish a duel between Desisa, who was also second in New York last November, and Lemi Berhanu developed and the latter was able to drop the much more experienced Desisa with about one kilometre to go.
Dream come true in Dubai
“I would never have thought that I could win this race,” said Berhanu, who had won his debut race in Zurich last year with 2:10:40. “It was my dream to do this in Dubai one day, but not this year! With around one kilometre to go, I sensed that I could succeed.”
He has now improved by more than five minutes and is unbeaten in two races.
“If my federation selects me then I would really like to run the marathon in the World Championships in the summer,” added Berhanu, who said he had no idea what to do with the first prize cheque of US$200,000. “I never thought about the money. I really don’t know what I will do with it.”
By contrast, Dubai proved a tough and disappointing marathon experience for Bekele.
Ethiopia’s superstar, in his third marathon, dropped out just beyond the 30km mark, appearing to suffer from a leg injury. He had been in the leading group up to the 28km mark.
“Kenenisa suffered hamstring problems in both legs,” explained his coach Renato Canova.
“But I think the real problem is in his right achilles tendon. At the end of November, he had to reduce training because of this but then it got better and, actually, his final training sessions looked encouraging. A world record was never a realistic target, but a 2:04 time seemed realistic.
“However, when I saw him running today he did not look relaxed, he looked tight. I think this is the reason why he developed hamstring problems. Something must have happened in the final few days before the race,” added the Italian coach. “We now have to solve this tendon problem but for his future marathon career I remain very confident. I think he will do really well.”
Mergia a motivated mother
Making it a marvellous day for Ethiopian runners, other than Bekele, Aselefech Mergia produced a perfect comeback in the women’s race.
Having taken an extensive break from competition to have a baby, the 2011 and 2012 Dubai champion returned to run a marathon for the first time since her disappointing 42nd place at the 2012 Olympics and won in 2:20:02, just 31 seconds outside her course record from three years ago.
In a thrilling battle right to the line, Kenya’s world half marathon champion Gladys Cherono was beaten by just one second in what was the third-fastest marathon debut.
Another Kenyan, Lucy Kabuu, was third in 2:20:21 in a race which saw 10 women run faster than 2:24.
Ethiopia’s Tigist Tufa broke clear shortly after the start and maintained a daunting pace, leading a talented chasing group by a minute at 20km, which was reached in 1:05:23 and suggested a 2:18 finishing time.
However, Tufa paid the price in the end and was caught at 34km by a five-woman group consisting of Mergia, fellow Ethiopians Aberu Kebede and Shure Demissie, Kabuu and Cherono.
The group was reduced to three with just over three kilometres remaining after Kebede and Demissie were dropped, before Mergia eventually proved the strongest in the final kilometre.
“I told myself after having my daughter that I could win a marathon again,” said Mergia, who was watched by her husband and baby daughter. “We used the prize money from my first two wins in Dubai to begin building a hotel back home, now we’ll be able to complete the job.”
Ethiopian runners took the next four places. Fourth was teenager Demissie in a world junior best of 2:20:59, and the fifth fastest debut on record; with Kebede in 2:21:17, 2014 Dubai champion Mulu Seboka in 2:21:56 and then Alemu Bekele in 2:22:51 the next three women across the line.
Men’s results:
Women’s results:
Source: IAAF
Read more at: http://ayyaantuu.com/sport/lemi-berhanu-surprises-while-aselefech-mergia-makes-magnificent-marathon-comeback-in-dubai/
Oromian Economist 
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