Sawe, Alemu post big victories in Valencia
Kenyan clocks 2:02:05 in marathon debut, Ethiopian wins women's title in 2:16:49
Sabastian Sawe of Kenya made a dynamite debut and Megertu Alemu of Ethiopia recorded the biggest victory of her career in the Valencia Marathon in Spain on Sunday.
The 29-year-old Sawe, a standout half marathon runner who won that event in the inaugural World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia, last year, placed first in the men’s race in Valencia with a time of 2 hours 2 minutes 5 seconds in his initial effort at the distance.
His time was the fastest in the world this year, the eighth fastest ever run, and it moved him to fifth on the all-time performer list. And it came in a race in which he did not take the lead until there were roughly six kilometers left in the contest.
“I am so excited and happy to win here,” he said in a postrace interview. “It is a great moment for me.”
The 27-year-old Megertu was the pre-race favorite in the women’s contest and she lived up to that billing by breaking things open shortly after the halfway point while on her way to a winning time of 2:16:49.
Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia had withdrawn from the Olympic Games in Paris in August due to an injury, but he was still considered the men’s favorite on Sunday after setting a course record of 2:01:48 in Valencia last year and winning the Boston Marathon in April. And he appeared to be running well within himself for the first hour and 25 minutes of the race.
Although various pacesetters led the field through 10 kilometers in 29:04, 20 kilometers in 58:06, the halfway mark in 1:01:17, and 30 kilometers in 1:27:21, Lemma, Daniel Mateiko of Kenya, and Deresa Geleta of Ethiopia were a second back at that point in the race, with Sawe and Ethiopian Berhanu Legese another second behind that trio.
Guye Adola of Ethiopia was in sixth place at that juncture, but he was 19 seconds back of Sawe and Legese.
Sentimental favorite Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia had finished second in the London Marathon in April, but the 42-year-old who is regarded by many as the greatest all-around men’s distance runner in history had begun to fall off the back of an eight-runner lead pack around 23 kilometers into the race.
After Lemma began to drop back during the 32nd kilometer, Mateiko and Geleta had taken a three-second over third-place Sawe about a kilometer later.
Although Sawe caught up to Geleta during the next four minutes of the race, the two of them were about five seconds behind Mateiko, who was also making his marathon debut, an hour and 39 minutes into the race.
However, Mateiko’s lead had been reduced to two seconds over Sawe and three over Geleta when he came through the 35-kilometer mark in 1:41:44. And Sawe surged past him at the 1:44:30 mark and was never seriously challenged after that.
His lead had grown to about 10 seconds over Geleta and Mateiko by the 1:48:00 mark and it was even larger when he came through 40 kilometers in 1:55:52 after running the previous five kilometers in 14:06, the fastest 5k segment of the race.
After looking incredibly smooth and relaxed as he left Geleta and Mateiko behind, the strain of Sawe’s effort became more evident during the final minutes of the race. Nonetheless, his final time was the second-fastest debut marathon in history behind the 2:01:53 that Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum had run in the 2022 Valencia Marathon.
Kiptum had lowered the world record to 2:00:35 in the Chicago Marathon last year, but he was killed in a car accident in February.
After Sawe, Geleta finished second in 2:02:38 and Mateiko placed third in 2:04:24.
Alphonce Simbu of Tanzania finished fourth in 2:04:38 and he was followed by 42-year-old Tadese Abraham of Switzerland in 2:04:40, and Chimdessa Debele of Ethiopia in 2:04:44.
Ten runners ran under 2:05 as Maru Teferi of Israel place seventh in 2:04:45, followed by Hillary Kipkoech of Kenya in 2:04:45, Samwel Fitwi of Germany in 2:04:56, and Lemma in 2:04:59.
While Geleta’s time was the 11th-fastest in history and moved him to seventh on the all-time performer list, Abraham, Teferi, and Fitwi set national records. Simbu’s mark was a personal best, and Debele and Kipkoech turned in standout efforts in their marathon debuts.
Although the women’s race wasn’t as statistically impressive as the men’s in terms of the top marks, seven of the top nine finishers did set personal bests and two of those performances were national records as well.
After leading a six-runner lead pack through five kilometers in 16:08, Alemu was in second place when compatriot Tiruye Mesfin led a front group of four women past the 10-kilometer mark in 32:03.
The lead pack was down to Alemu and Ugandan record-holder Stella Chesang when the pair went through 15 kilometers in 47:56 and 20 kilometers in 1:03:48. However, Alemu was a second ahead of Chesang when she came through the halfway mark in 1:07:15 and her advantage had expanded to 14 seconds when she passed the 25-kilometer mark in 1:19:45.
Based on her split at that point in the race, Alemu was projected to run 2:14:36, a time that would have lowered the course record by 22 seconds and been the sixth-fastest ever by a woman. However, she began to slow after that, although her lead over Chesang continued to grow.
Her sixth five-kilometer split of the race was 16:10 after she had run 15:57 during the previous 5k segment. And her seventh was 16:48, followed by an eighth 5k segment in 16:49.
While her final time of 2:16:49 was 15 seconds off her personal best of 2:16:34 that she had set in finishing fourth in the London Marathon in April, it left her more than a minute and a half in front of Chesang, who finished second in 2:18:26 while crushing her national record of 2:20:23.
Mesfin finished third in 2:18:35, followed by Evaline Chirchir of Kenya in 2:20:33, Majida Maayout of Spain in 2:21:43, and Chimdesa Kumsa of Ethiopia in 2:21:54.
Laura Luengo of Spain placed seventh in 2:22:31 and she was followed by Isobel Batt-Doyle of Australia in 2:22:59, Moira Stewartova of Czechia in 2:23:44, and Sara Hall of the U.S. in 2:23:45.
While Stewartova’s time was a national record, Mesfin, Chirchir, Kumsa, Luengo, and Batt-Doyle all set personal bests.
“I’m so happy to get this victory,” Alemu said through an interpreter.
When asked what she thought about the event’s atmosphere, she said that “the course is very good, the weather is very good. Everything is good. But during the race, I don’t feel good.”
With Sunday’s race being held about five weeks after catastrophic flash floods killed more than 220 people in Valencia and the surrounding region, a moment of silence was held for the victims before the event started.
The organizers also pledged to donate three euros to a flood recovery fund for every runner who finished the race. The 35,000 entered runners were also invited to make contributions to the recovery fund.