The Czech 1952 marathon legend Emil Zatopek was 6 feet tall, while Seoul 1988 Italian champion Gelindo Bordin was 5’11”. But Paris Olympic champ, Ethiopian Tamirat Tola brought ‘tall’ back into marathon running in 2024 crossing the tape as a 5 ft-11.
At the Mumbai Marathon on Sunday, it was Ethiopia’s tiny rival Eritrea that saw the loping strides of another 5 foot-11, Eritrean
Berhane Tesfay, as he won the race clocking a time of 2 hours 11 minutes and 44 seconds.
It was infact a momentous 1-2 for the breakaway nation of Eritrea as Tesfay’s compatriot Merhawi Kesete was second in 2:11:50s while Ethiopia’s Tesfaye Demeke (2:11:56s) came third.
Tesfay is 38, while Kesete is 39 years old and were born in late 1980s. Tesfay and Kesete are older than their country, which won independence from Ethiopia in 1993.
Kenyan Joyce Chepkemoi Tele, meanwhile, won the women’s elite crown in 2:24:56s, finishing ahead of Shitaye Eshete (2:25:29s) of Bahrain and Medina Deme Armino (2:27:58s) of Ethiopia.
Tesfay was amongst the lead pack right at the 10 km mark, getting there in 30 minutes 33 seconds, and was a second ahead of Kesete and Demeke at 1:01.19 at 20 km. A pack of the first 6 finishers were within 3 seconds of each other at the 30km mark, at 1:32.22-24, which got whittled down to top 4 by the 40 km mark at 2:05.22.
Anish Thapa, the Indian topper, was a minute and half behind Tesfay at 10 km, three and half minutes lagging at 20 km, almost 5 minutes behind at 30km, though he brought that down to 3 minutes gap at 40 km mark.
But it was a memorable win for the 38-year-old Eritrean who cracked his first Olympic qualification at age 36, debuting in Paris.
The resident of Rotterdam in Netherlands, had achieved the Olympic marathon standard, when finishing third in the Kosice Peace marathon, clocking 2:07:07 in October 2023. On a hot Mumbai day with concerns about pollution in the air, the Eritrean paced himself wonderfully and his long strides on the home stretch helped him pip compatriot Kesete, by a mere 6 seconds in the final sprint.
It had been a fine end-race between the two Tigrinya speaking Eritreans and the Ethiopian who finished 12 seconds behind the winner eventually. 5 Ethiopians, 1 Kenyan and 2 Indians finished in Top 10 in the men’s race where times were sluggish due to the heat.
Indian Anish Thapa did well to clock under 2:20, but his 2:17.23 to finish overall 7th, just ahead of Man Singh (2:17:37), meant he was nearly 6 minutes off the leader’s pace. Fancied Gopi Thonakal, an Olympian, was 3rd amongst Indians and 11th overall.
11 Indians went under 2:30, but only 3 under 2:20.
The best Indian women’s finisher was predictably Nirmaben Thakor, who washed away and powdered her Indian opponents. She clocked 2:50.06 and was 16th overall, almost 25 minutes behind winner Joyce.
Sonika Parmar (2:50:55) and Sonam (2:55:45) were second and third amongst Indians, finishing 17th and 18th overall.
In the half marathon, Sawan Barwal won in the men’s category clocking an impressive 1:04.37, while Harmanjot Singh bagged the second position with 1:06.03. Kartik Karkera secured the third spot. He finished the race in 1:07.20
In the women’s category, Stanzin Dolkar secured the first position with 1:25.51 while Skarma Idong Lanze secured the second spot with 1 hour 27 minutes and three seconds. Tashi Ladon took one hour 29 minutes and 30 seconds to complete the half-marathon to bag the third place.
Eritrean surprise
The 38-year-old men’s champion from Eritrea can be considered a huge surprise because, Ethiopia’s Hayle Lemi Berhanu was aiming for an unprecedented hat-trick of titles. Berhanu, held the event record (2:07:32) set in 2023, and had the confidence of running on this course.
Another strong contender had been Ethiopian Bazezew Asmare, fully recovered from a prior injury, and Kenya’s Philemon Rono, runner-up in 2023 for whom a win here was crucial for his World Championships qualification for Tokyo.
Berhanu and Rono had looked like striding away with top finishes at 25 km mark. But the seasoned Eritreans stole a march over them.
The prize pool of $389,524 included $50,000 for the winners in both men’s and women’s categories.
I’m Manas Ranjan Sahoo: Founder of “Webtirety Software”. I’m a Full-time Software Professional and an aspiring entrepreneur, dedicated to growing this platform as large as possible. I love to Write Blogs on Software, Mobile applications, Web Technology, eCommerce, SEO, and about My experience with Life.
