Dubai, UAE, January 12, 2025, 08.00gmt
Bute Gemechu of Ethiopia added his identify to the rising listing of debutant marathoners who lately received the boys’s race in Dubai, taking the title with a world-leading time of 2hr 04min 51 sec. Nevertheless, the dramatic end within the girls’s race, received by compatriot Bedatu Hirpa a couple of minutes later, attracted the eye.
After an intriguing five-way tussle as much as 25k, Dera Dida and coaching accomplice Hirpa solid a result in show unassailable for the pursers. And when Dida, first and third right here within the final two years, eased away with 5 kilometers to run, it regarded as if she would make good on her promise earlier within the week to repeat her 2023 victory. However as quickly as she got here to the prolonged, straight end line, one thing was clearly flawed. Her head was again, and he or she was struggling for breath.
With lower than a kilometer to run at that stage, Hirpa was nonetheless ten seconds behind. She stated afterward that she didn’t know that her pal was struggling. Nonetheless, when the hole between them evaporated within the rising warmth of the Dubai morning, Hirpa sailed previous to victory, punching the air exuberantly as she took the end tape. Her time of two.18.27 considerably improved her earlier greatest of two.21.09, which she set in Amsterdam three months in the past.
She was so elated that she ripped off her footwear, threw them into the air, and set off on a victory dash again down the ending straight with an Ethiopian flag wrapped round her neck. In the meantime, a distressed Dida was flat out after ending 5 seconds behind. When she lastly caught her breath, she defined that she bought extreme abdomen cramps within the final kilometer and was incapable of shrugging them off.
After commiserating together with her colleague, Hirpa stated, ‘I used to be concentrating a lot alone race I didn’t notice that Dera was having issues; it was solely when the hole between us closed so rapidly I spotted that I may win. However I all the time believed I used to be going to win anyway’.
Hirpa saved the leisure going at her press convention later. When requested what she would do with the $80,000 prize cash, she stated, I’ll give it to my coach. Since Gemedu Dedefo, the person in query, was standing by, he roared with laughter and politely refused, upon which she reached out and seized her winner’s plaque and offered it to him ceremoniously. Dida by the way recovered rapidly and was likely consoled by a private greatest time of two.18.32 and a prize of $40,000. One other colleague, Tigist Girma, was third in 2.20.47.
Gemechu solely had a number of moments of doubt after he bought away from the main males’s group at 35 kilometers. His colleague Shifera Tamru reduce the hole to round 20 meters with solely two of the 41.195 kilometers to run. However he overreached himself and was handed by one other colleague, Berehanu Tsegu, who completed second in 2.05.14, with Tamru third in 2.05.28. Turning into the fifth Ethiopian debutant in succession to win the Dubai males’s race, Gemechu stated, ‘Since I solely determined to run the marathon two months in the past, I actually didn’t know what to anticipate, however once I bought to 36 kilometers, I spotted I used to be going to win’.
Dennis Kimetto of Kenya, ten days wanting his 41st birthday and over ten minutes lengthy of his former world document of two.02.57 (2014), acquitted himself properly sufficient with fifteenth place in 2.14.56. Nonetheless, former world champion Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia dropped out.
Within the 10k race later within the morning, girls’s winner Gemene Tunku edged out fellow Ethiopian Chaltu Diriba, clocking a world’s main time of 31min 03sec. Some Dubai residents, together with Eilish McColgan of the UK, have been third in 31.14. Yassir Ech Chaachoui of Morocco was the boys’s winner with 28:20.
British gold medalist and Paralympian Richard Whitehead completed the primary of 20 marathons he needs to run this yr to finish his ‘100 Marathon Problem’. He ran in slightly below 2 hours and 47 minutes.
RESULTS
MEN (All Ethiopia)
1 Bute GEMECHU 2.04.51 $80,000
2 Berehanu TSEGU 2.05.14 $40,000
3 Shifera TAMRU
4 Desalegn GIRMA 2.06.52 $10,000
5 Dejene HAILU 2.07.03 $5,000
6 Getachew MASRESHA 2.07.04 $4,000
7 Tadele DEMISSIE 2.08.21 $3,000
8 Boki DIRIBA 2.09.06 $2,500
9 Embay GOITOM 2.09.08 $2,000
10 Yismaw ATINAFU 2.09.32 $1,500
WOMEN (All Ethiopia)
1 Bedatu HIRPA 2.18.27 $80,000
2 Dera DIDA 2.18.32 $40,000
3 Tigist GIRMA 2.20.47 $20,000
4 Zeinebe YIMER 2.21.12 $10,000
5 Bertukan WELDE 2.21.54 $5,000
6 Kuftu TAHIR 2.22.53 $4,000
7 Gadise MULU 2.23.19 $3,000
8 Almaz KEBEBE
9 Kebebush YISMA 2.24.04 $2,000
10 Dibabe BEYENE 2.24.38 $1,500
ends
