Ethiopians domite Mumbai Marathon

Mumbai, Jan 21: It was a double triumph for Ethiopian runners as Solomon Deksisa and Amane Gobe took top honours in the men’s and women’s categories respectively at the 2018 Mumbai Marathon here on Sunday. Deksisa powered home in two hours, nine minutes and 34 seconds while Gobe clocked 2:25:49.

India’s Gopi Thokal and fellow armyman Nitendra Singh Rawat finished just outside the top 10 at the 11th and 12th places respectively.

Gopi inched ahead of Nitendra in the last stretch, clocking 2:16:51. Srinu Bugatha, the third best Indian male finisher, was much further down with 2:23:56.

The top three Indian women finishers were Sudha Singh (2:48:32), Jyoti Gawte (2:50:47) and Parul Chowdhary (2:50:47).

Deksisa, the fastest man in the field, arrived here as the pre-race favourite for the men’s race due to his career best time of 2:06:22 which was set at the 2016 Rotterdam Marathon.

Nevertheless, after some solid rather than spectacular performances in the last 12 months, he was a margil rather than prohibitive favourite.

The question over whether Deksisa could win the first marathon of his career and walk away with the $42,000 first prize continued through the first half of the race, the starter’s gun having gone off at 7:10 am local time just as the sun was starting to rise and the temperature already at 22 degrees Celsius.

Deksisa notably stayed at the back of the leading pack, avoided dictating the pace and the expression on his face on a number of occasions suggested that he was struggling to find his rhythm although he later said that this was a false impression.

After a fast first 10 kilometres, the pace eased up and a leading group of 11 men went through the halfway point in 64:28, about 30 seconds slower than had been requested from the pacers.

The pace continued to drift away from that required to improve on Gideon Kipketer’s 2016 course record of 2:08:35 until Joshua Kipkorir surged ahead at the 26 km mark. IANS

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