Week in Review: Gemechu wins marathon debut in Dubai
Ethiopian clocks 2:04:51 after entering race with half marathon best of 60:03
Bute Gemechu of Ethiopia took a big step forward in his career development when he won the men’s division of the Dubai Marathon in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday.
According to his World Athletics profile, the 23-year-old runner had entered the race with a good — but not great — best of 60 minutes 3 seconds in the half marathon. But he finished it with a time of 2:04:51 in his debut at the marathon distance and $80,000 in prize money.
“Because it was my first marathon, I didn’t know what to expect but at 36k I realised I could win,” Gemechu was quoted as saying in a post on the race website.
Gemechu, who was followed across the finish line by compatriots Berhanu Tsegu in second place in 2:05:14 in his debut and Shifera Tamru in third in 2:05:28, was part of a large lead group whose top runner came through 10 kilometers in 29:49 and 20 kilometers in 59:11 after running the second 10k segment in 29:22.
He was then two seconds off the lead when he came through the halfway mark in 62:25 while being one of 13 runners in the front group.
Desalegn Girma of Ethiopia was in first place when he came through 25 kilometers in 1:13:50, with Sila Kiptoo of Kenya in front at 30 kilometers in 1:28:29, and Gemechu in the lead at 35 kilometers in 1:43:31 after the pace had slowed to 15:02 for the previous five kilometers.
However, Gemechu stepped on the gas shortly after that and he had a two-second lead at the 1:44:00 mark of the race. His advantage had grown to four seconds an hour and 51 minutes into the race and he was 14 seconds ahead of Tsegu when he came through 40 kilometers in 1:58:10.
He ultimately won by 23 seconds after producing nearly identical splits of 62:25 and 62:26 during the two halves of the race.
With nearly all of the top entrants hailing from Ethiopia, it was not surprising to see Ethiopians sweep the first 14 places, with Girma placing fourth in 2:06:52, Dejene Hailu finishing fifth in 2:07:03, and Getachew Masresha taking sixth in 2:07:04.
Gemechu’s victory was his second in a row as he had run 61:22 in winning a half marathon in Zhenning, China, in June of last year.
That race came two months after he had run a personal best of 60:03 while finishing third in the Istanbul Half Marathon in April, and 62:45 to finish second in a half marathon in Verona, Italy, in February.
Prior to that, he had clocked 60:12 while placing second in a half marathon in Ravenna, Italy, in November of 2023.
“I’m happy for this situation,” Gemechu said through an interpreter when he was asked what winning his debut marathon meant to him.
He added that he spent much of the race “running for a good time. But fortunately, after 36 kilometers, the situation was changing and I’m getting the winner.”
Superb depth: With his winning time of 2:04:51 in the Dubai Marathon on Sunday, Bute Gemechu became the 50th Ethiopian to have run under 2:05:00 for the 42.195-kilometer/26 mile 385-yard distance.
Kenya, which has produced the last five runners to have lowered the world record in the men’s marathon, has had 48 sub-2:05:00 performers, followed by Germany, Israel, and Tanzania with two each.
The other countries with a single runner to have broken 2:05 are Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Eritrea, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkiye, and Uganda.
Back on the roads: Kenyan Dennis Kimetto, the first man in history to run under 2:03:00 in the marathon, was the top non-Ethiopian finisher in the Dubai Marathon when he placed 15th in 2:14:56.
The 40-year-old Kimetto, who had run a then-world record of 2:02:57 in the 2014 Berlin Marathon, was two seconds out of the lead when he came through 10 kilometers in 29:51 in Dubai. But he was a minute and 10 seconds behind the leader when he clocked 1:03:33 at the halfway mark and he was four and a half minutes back when he passed the 30-kilometer mark in 1:33.00.
According to World Athletics, Kimetto’s last previous race had been in April of 2019 when he dropped out of the Daegu Marathon in South Korea. He had finished his last marathon in November of 2018 when he ran 2:14:54 to place 10th in the Shanghai Marathon in China.
He had been hampered by injuries since setting the world record in 2014 when he was 30.
Erroneous assumption: Timothy Hutchings is a former world-class distance runner from Great Britain who has been announcing track and field meets and road races for many years.
But he prematurely stated that Dera Dida of Ethiopia was on her way to victory with less than two minutes left in the women’s race of the Dubai Marathon on Sunday.
Shortly after Dida had entered the long final straightaway on a multi-lane road, Hutchings stated that “there’s no doubting that we have a fabulous run on the way from an established champion, Dera Dida.”
It was not long after that, however, that it became obvious that Ethiopian Bedatu Hirpa was quickly making up ground on Dida and she sped past her fading compatriot at the 2:17:50 mark before crossing the finish line — while pumping the air with her right arm — with a winning time of 2:18:27.
That mark, which crushed her previous personal best of 2:21:09, left her five seconds in front of Dida, whose 2:18:32 effort bested her previous best of 2:19:24 that she had run while finishing sixth in the 2023 Berlin Marathon.
“I was concentrating on my own race and I did not realize that Dera had problems but I always thought I could win,” Hirpa was quoted as stating in a post on the event site.
Hirpa and Dida had been part of a six-woman lead pack that went through 10 kilometers in 33:05 and they were part of a five-runner group that came through the halfway mark in 1:09:12.
However, Dida was two seconds ahead of Hirpa when she came through 30 kilometers in 1:37:54 and she was five seconds up on her training partner when she clocked 1:54.00 at 35 kilometers. Her lead was up to 10 seconds when she came through 40 kilometers in 2:10:47, but Hirpa had reduced her deficit to six seconds shortly after turning onto the long final straightaway.
Dida’s stride had shortened and her shoulders had tightened as her head tilted back involuntarily at that point in the race and she had no response after Hirpa surged past her with less than 40 seconds left in the contest.
After Hirpa and Dida, Ethiopian Tigist Girma finished third in 2:20:47 in her marathon debut.
She was followed by compatriots Zeineba Yimer in 2:21:12, Bertukan Welde in 2:21:54, and Kuftu Tahir in 2:22:53 as Ethiopians swept the first 16 places in the race.
Record binge continues: Andreas Almgren, a man who set Swedish records in five different distance events last year, lowered the European record in the men’s 10k road race to 26:53 when he won a depth-laden affair in Valencia, Spain, on Sunday.
The 29-year-old Almgren’s time of 26:53 left him a second ahead of Switzerland’s Dominic Lobalu and two seconds in front of Kenya’s Vincent Langat, bettered the previous European record of 27:04 set by Etienne Daguinos of France in November, and crushed the previous Swedish record of 27:20 that he had set in finishing sixth in Valencia last year.
The effort also moved him to 10th on the all-time performer list, with Lobalu at 11th, and Vincent Langat in a three-way tie for 12th.
“Last year I ran 27:20 here and I knew I could run much faster today,” Almgren said in a World Athletics post. “It’s my first European record so I’m over the moon; I’ll now spend four weeks in the altitude of Sierra Nevada to focus on my next target, the 3000m at the European Indoor Championships.”
Almgren had set national records of 12:50.94 in the 5,000 and 26:52.87 in the 10,000 last year, but he had not run in the Olympics due to a stress reaction in one of his shins. However, he had placed fifth in the European Athletics Cross Country Championships in Antalya, Turkiye, in early December in his first race back from the injury.
He was part of a lead pack in Valencia that came through three kilometers in 8:13 and the halfway point in 13:43. A sub-27:00 clocking did not appear to be in the cards at that point in the race, but the pace began to pick up as a front group of seven passed seven kilometers in 19:05 after running the previous 2k in 5:22.
Lobalu, Langat, and Almgren were clear of everyone else with a kilometer remaining and it was Almgren, the Swedish record holder in the 1,500 at 3:32.00, who surged into the lead shortly before crossing the finish line.
Behind the front three, Daniel Kinyanjui of Kenya placed fourth in 27:06, followed by Isaac Kimeli in a Belgium record of 27:10 and Benard Kangat of Kenya in 27:11 in a race in which a record-tying 11 runners broke 27:30.
New talent emerges: Kenyan Hellen Lobun, who had lowered her personal best to 14:45.66 for 5,000 meters on the track on Dec. 1 of last year, won the women’s division of the 10k road race in Valencia, Spain, with the fifth-fastest-time ever.
The 25-year-old Lobun, who had also run 8:37.16 for 3,000 meters and 4:03.65 for 1,500 last year, clocked 29:20 on Sunday while finishing ahead of the Ethiopian trio of Girmawit Gebrzihair (29:24), Fotyen Tesfay (29:42), and Asayech Ayichew (29:43) in a race in which the top nine finishers ran under 31 minutes.
Lobun’s time, which came in her first 10k road race, moved her to fourth on the all-time performer list, with Gebrzihair at sixth, Tesfay at eighth, and Ayichew in a tie for ninth.
“I didn’t expect to win but I knew I was in good shape,” Lobun said in a World Athletics post. “It was my first 10km ever so my debut has been fantastic. I’ll next compete on 23 February at the Lobo Village cross country race in Eldoret and later I’ll focus on the track season as I try to make the Kenyan team for the World Championships in Tokyo.”
Lobun’s victory came in a race that had been billed as an attempt by Tesfay to better the Ethiopian record of 29:14 that had been a world record when Yalemzerf Yehualaw ran it in 2022.
Paced by Abedarrahman El Khayami of Spain, a quartet of Tesfay, Lobun, Gebrzihair and 19-year-old Ayichew went through through three kilometers in a sizzling 8:46, which projected to a final time of 28:46, which would have tied the world record set by Kenyan Agnes Ngetich in last year’s race in Valenica.
Not surprisingly, the pace slowed and Tesfay had a five-second lead over Lobun when she came through 5,000 meters in 14:31. Ayichew was in third at 14:38, followed by Gebrzihair in fourth at 14:42.
Lobun and Gebrzihair soon reeled into Tsefay and that trio came through the seven-kilometer mark in 20:29 after Tesfay’s tempo had slowed to 5:58 for the previous two kilometers.
The race for first place was down to Lobun and Gebrzihair when she passed nine kilometers and the Kenyan broke away from the Ethiopian with about 600 meters left in the race in which a record-tying four women ran under 30 minutes.
After the first four, Fentaye Belayneh of Ethiopia finished fifth in 30:00, followed by Christine Chesiro of Kenya in 30:06.
Contrasting victories: Nadia Battocletti of Italy and Telahun Bekele of Ethiopia used different tactics in posting large margins of victories in the women’s and men’s races of the Campaccio meet in San Giorgio su Legano, Italy, on January 6.
The meet was a gold-level event in the World Athletics Cross Country Tour for the 2024-25 season.
The 24-year-old Battocletti, who had won her first senior European cross country title in December, won the women’s race with a time of 21:14 over the six-kilometer course while finishing well ahead of runner-up and compatriot Elisa Palmero, who clocked 21:58.
She was followed by Susanna Saapunki of Finland in 22:06 and Micheline Niyomahoro of Burundi in 22:18.
Battocletti, the Olympic silver medalist in the 10,000, quickly took the lead in the Campaccio race and had a seven-second advantage over Palmero and Saapunki after the first of three two-kilometer loops and her lead had ballooned to 28 seconds after the second lap before she finished 44 seconds in front of her fellow Italian.
“Today I felt like I was back to the races I did as a girl, with the rainy and cold weather,” Battocletti said in a World Athletics post. “This Campaccio, with the changes to the route of this edition, was even more technical and a higher level of difficulty that made it even more fun. It is an honour to have won this wonderful race, last year I was very close.”
The 25-year-old Bekele, who is the ninth-fastest 5,000 runner in history with a best of 12:42.70, was running in his first cross country race in six years in the Campaccio meet. But he made a break from the lead group around the seven-kilometer mark while on his way to a time of 31:32 over the 10,000-meter course.
Celestin Ndikumana of Burundi finished second in 31:50, followed by Oscar Chelimo of Uganda in 32:09, and Mohamed Amin Jhinaoui of Tunisia in 32:11.
Jhinaoui, who had set a national record of 8:07.73 while placing fourth in the 3,000 steeplechase in the Olympic Games, was in third place near the midway point of the race. But he slipped in the mud and lost ground to the lead pack that included Bekele, Ndikumana, and Matthew Kipruto of Kenya.
When Bekele made his big move a little more than three kilometers later, the race for first place was over.
Impressive frosh: Max Armstrong, the 30th-fastest high school runner in the U.S. last year in the boys’ 800 meters, moved to fifth on the all-time collegiate indoor list in the men’s 600 when he ran 1:15.11 in winning the event for the University of Mississippi in the Commodore Challenge at the Vanderbilt Multipurpose Facility last Saturday.
Armstrong, who ran a high school best of 1:50.45 in the 800 while winning the Nike Outdoor Nationals title last June, finished 1.6 seconds ahead of junior teammate Cade Flatt, who ran 1:16.71 to finish second in the first of four sections contested during the meet.
The time by Armstrong was less than four tenths of a second off the collegiate record of 1:14.79 set by Michael Saruni of the University of Texas El Paso in 2018 and came five weeks after he had opened his collegiate career with a personal best of 1:49.65 in winning the 800 in the Birmingham Indoor Ice Breaker meet in Birmingham, Alabama.
Two for two: Sophomore Barnabas Aggerh of William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, lowered his own NAIA record in the men’s 60-meter dash when he clocked 6.52 seconds in winning that event in the Commodore Challenge.
The time by the 26-year-old Ghanaian bettered the previous record of 6.60 that he had run in the Birmingham Indoor Ice Breaker meet and left him nine hundredths of a second in front of junior teammate Jaylyn Session, who placed second in a personal best of 6.61. It was also the fastest collegiate time in the U.S. at any level during the current indoor season.
Aggerh is the defending NAIA champion in the 60 indoors and in the 100 outdoors. He ran his personal best of 10.29 in the 100 when he won the All-Africa University Games in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2022 and he clocked a wind-aided 10.01 in winning the NAIA title in Marion, Indiana, in May of last year.
Quick opener: Senior Auhmad Robinson of Texas A&M became the third-fastest collegiate sprinter in history in the indoor 300 meters when he clocked 32.34 seconds in winning the McFerrin-12 Degree Invitational on his school’s home track last Friday.
Robinson, the runner-up in the 400 in the NCAA indoor championships last year, clocked 32.34 while finishing well ahead of sophomore Jayden Davis of Arizona State, who clocked 33.18 while placing second in the fifth of five sections.
The collegiate record of 31.99 was set by Jacory Patterson of Florida in 2022.
Prior to the McFerrin meet, Robinson’ last previous race had come in the 4 x 400 relay in the NCAA outdoor championships when he was credited with a blazing 43.20-second anchor leg for an Aggie foursome that clocked a winning 2:58.37, the fifth-fastest time in collegiate history.
Excelling in the 300: Senior Cameron Miller of Purdue produced his second notable clocking of the indoor season in the men’s 300 meters when he ran 32.56 seconds to edge former Kentucky standout Kennedy Lightner in the McCravy Memorial meet at the Kentucky-Nutter Field House in Lexington.
Miller’s time left him eight hundredths ahead of Lightner and came four weeks after he had run 32.43 to win the event in the Blue Demon Holiday Invite at the Dr. Conrad Worrill Indoor Track & Field Facility in Chicago.
The 32.43 clocking puts the 200-meter specialist sixth on the all-time collegiate performer list.
Nice one-two punch: Sophomores Glady Chepngetich and Judy Kosgei of Clemson placed first and second, respectively, in the women’s 1,000 meters in the Clemson Invitational last Friday while moving to third and 11th on the all-time collegiate indoor performer list.
Chepngetich clocked 2:39.99 and Kenyan compatriot Kosgei ran 2:41.70 in a race in which Clemson alum Natoya Goule-Toppin of Jamaica set the pace for the first three laps of the 200-meter track.
Goule-Toppin, the No. 7-ranked 800-meter runner in the world by Track & Field News for the 2024 season, ran 32.18 for the first 200 before coming through two laps in 1:03.77 and three laps in 1:36.31.
Kosgei was a tenth of as second in front of Chepngetich when she came through 800 meters in 2:08.34, but Chepngetich was much stronger over the last lap as she ran her final 200 in 31.55 to Kosgei’s 33.36.
The collegiate record of 2:38.58 was set by Danae Rivers of Penn States in 2019.
Solid opener: Sophomore JaMeesia Ford of the South Carolina, the defending NCAA indoor champion in the women’s 200 meters, won the 300 in 36.48 in the Gamecock Opener last Saturday.
It was the third-fastest time of Ford’s career, ranks ninth on the all-time collegiate performance list, and left her well in front of sophomore teammate Zaya Akins, who finished second in 37.02.
After posting personal bests of 22.34 in the 200 indoors last year, as well as 22.08 outdoors, Ford ranks second on the all-time U20 performer list in each event. She has also run 50.33 in the 400.
Double victories: Senior Maggie Congdon and junior Colin Sahlman of Northern Arizona posted wins in both the women’s and men’s 400 and 600 meters, respectively, in the Friday Night Axe ’Em Open last Friday.
Running on the 300-meter track in NAU’s J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome, Congdon won the women’s 600 in 1:27.37 before coming back about 55 minutes later to place first in the 400 in 54.19.
Sahlman, the fourth-place finisher in the 1,500 in last year’s NCAA outdoor championships, clocked 1:17.24 in the men’s 600 and 48.63 in the 400.
Looking ahead: Kenyans Hellen Obiri and Sharon Lokedi, and Ethiopian Amane Beriso, the third-, fourth-, and fifth-place finishers in the women’s marathon in the Olympic Games in Paris last August, top the list of female entrants for the 129th edition of the Boston Marathon that will be held on April 21.
Obiri won her second consecutive Boston title last year before winning the bronze medal in the Olympics and finishing second in the New York City Marathon in November.
Lokedi had placed second to Obiri in the Boston Marathon before finishing fourth in Paris, four seconds back of Obiri, and ninth in New York City.
Beriso, whose personal best of 2:14:58 makes her the fifth-fastest woman in history, placed second behind Obiri in the Boston Marathon in 2023 before winning the World Athletics title in August of that year. She then finished third in the Tokyo Marathon in March of last year before placing fifth in the Olympics.
Kenyan Irine Cheptai and Ethiopians Yalemzerf Yehualaw and Bedatu Hirpa are expected to be other top contenders.
Cheptai ran a personal best of 2:17:51 while finishing third in the Chicago Marathon last October and Yehaulaw won the Amsterdam Marathon in 2:16:52 a week later.
Hirpa is coming off a thrilling victory in the Dubai Marathon on Sunday during which she surged into the lead with less than 40 seconds left in the race while on her way to a personal best of 2:18:27.
Keira D’Amato and Sara Hall are the two fastest American entrants with bests of 2:19:12 and 2:20:32, respectively, while compatriot Dakotah Popehn was the top U.S. finisher in the Olympics with a 12th-place effort.
Looking ahead II: Defending champion Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia and Kenyans John Korir and Evans Chebet are regarded as the top three contenders for the men’s title in this year’s Boston Marathon that will be held on April 21.
That trio, who have personal bests of 2:01:48, 2:02:44, and 2:03:00, respectively, led the list of men’s entrants announced by the Boston Athletic Association last week.
Lemma had run his personal best of 2:01:48 in Valencia, Spain, in December of 2023 before winning Boston last year. He was named to the Ethiopian team for the Olympic Games in Paris in August, but a leg injury forced him to withdraw from the Games and he then finished 10th in Valencia last month.
Korir had run his personal best of 2:02:44 in winning the Chicago Marathon last October after finishing fourth in the Boston Marathon.
Chebet is a supervet who placed second in the New York City Marathon in November after placing third in the Boston race last April. Prior to that, he won Boston in 2023 and placed first in both the Boston and New York City marathons in 2022.
Kenyan CyBrian Kotut and Ethiopian Haymanot Alew, who have bests of 2:03:22 and 2:03:31, respectively, are the other sub-2:04 performers entered in the race.
Kotut’s best came in a runner-up finish in Berlin last September after he had placed ninth in the Boston Marathon.
Alew ran 2:03:31 to finish third in Berlin after he had placed second in marathons in Mumbai, India, and Hamburg, Germany, earlier in the year.
Americans Conner Mantz and Clayton Young are the Nos. 16 and 17 entrants in the field based on their personal bests of 2:07:47 and 2:08:00, respectively, but the duo has been known to outrun performers with superior times, as evidenced by their eighth- and ninth-place performances in the Olympic Games.