Yehaulaw continues string of standout performances
Ethiopian wins women's race in London Marathon, Kenyan Kipruto takes men's title
Ethiopia’s women’s distance runners are on a roll.
The latest triumph came on Sunday morning when Yalemzerf Yehaulaw won the women’s race in the London Marathon with a time of 2 hours 17 minutes 26 seconds.
Yehaulaw’s performance left her well ahead of defending champion Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya in second place (2:18:07) and fellow Ethiopian Alemu Megertu in third (2:18:32) in a race in which a record six women ran 2:19:30 or faster.
The 23-year-old Yehaulaw’s victory made her the youngest winner in the history of the London Marathon and it came after she had tumbled to the pavement when she stumbled over a speed bump about an hour and 46 minutes into the race. It also came a week after unheralded countrywoman Tigist Assefa had run 2:15:37 – the third fastest women’s time in history – in winning the Berlin Marathon, and two and a half months after Ethiopian women won seven medals – topped by gold medals in the 5,000, 10,000, and marathon – in the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Ethiopia had five of the top seven finishers in the men’s race, but Kenyan Amos Kipruto placed first in 2:04:39, followed by Ethiopian Leul Gebresilase (2:05:12) in second and Belgian Bashir Abdi in third (2:05:19).
“I am so happy to win here in London,” Yehaulaw said in a post on the World Athletics site. “I have worked very hard to prepare for this race, and to take the victory is amazing.”
Yehaulaw, along with Jepkosgei, had become a co-favorite in the race after world-record holder Brigid Kosgei of Kenya withdrew from the event earlier in the week because of an injury to her right hamstring.
Yehaulaw, who has run a women’s world best of 29:14 for 10,000 meters on the roads, as well as the second-fastest half-marathon time in history at 1:03:51, ran a then-national record of 2:17:23 in her marathon debut in Hamburg, Germany, in April. But due to her relative inexperience over the 26-mile, 385-yard (42.19 kilometers) distance, she was not considered an overwhelming favorite in a race full of veteran marathoners.
The elite women’s race, which started 40 minutes before the men’s, had an eight-runner lead pack that came through 5 kilometers in 16:01, passed 10 kilometers in 32:18 (16:17), and 15 kilometers in 48:51 (16:33).
Yehaulaw had stayed at the front of the pack, just back of a pacesetter, for most of the first 15 kilometers of the race. But she ran in the middle or back of the group for much of the next 15 kilometers that were covered in 49:01.
At that point, the lead group of seven runners consisted of Yehaulaw, Jepkosgei, Megertu, World Championship silver medalist Judith Jeptum Korir of Kenya, Joan Chelimo Melly of Romania, and Ethiopians Ashete Bekere and Sutume Asefe Kebede.
Disaster nearly struck Yehaulaw eight minutes later when she fell on her left hip while running at the rear of the lead group. But she sprang up quickly and was back amongst the leaders less than a minute and a half later.
The lead pack shrank from seven to five runners within the next five minutes and it was down to Korir, Jepkosgei, Megertu, and Yehaulaw when those four came through the 35-kilometer mark in 1:54:30 after running the previous five kilometers in 16:38.
Korir dropped 15 meters behind Jepkosgei, Yehaulaw, and Megertu two hours into the race, and Megertu fell back shortly after that.
Yehaulaw began increasing the pace less than two minutes later and she had a 10-meter lead on Jepkosgei within a minute of stepping on the accelerator. Her advantage had grown to 16 seconds when she came through 40 kilometers in 2:10:21 after running the previous five kilometers in 15:51.
There were reports Yehaulaw ran her 24th mile in a sizzling 4:43, but the race commentators wondered if someone had made an error in calculating that split.
Nonetheless, Yehaulaw was rolling during the last 15 minutes of the race while recording the 11th fastest time in history.
Megertu’s third-place time of 2:18:32 was a personal best that moved her to 24th on the all-time world performer list. Behind her came Korir (2:18:43), Melly (2:19:27), and Bekere (2:19:30).
Like the women’s race, the men’s affair had lost a big-name runner earlier in the week when Mo Farah of Great Britain withdrew due to a hip injury.
Farah, one of only two men in history – Lasse Viren of Finland was the first – to win the 5,000 and 10,000 meters in consecutive Olympic Games, is immensely popular in Great Britain. But unlike Kosgei on the women’s side, he would not have been a favorite in the men’s race had he run.
That title fell to Kipruto, 30, who had run a personal best of 2:03:13 in March while finishing second to countryman Eliud Kipchoge (2:02:40) in the Tokyo Marathon.
Kipchoge, the two-time defending Olympic champion, had lowered his world record to 2:01:09 in winning the Berlin Marathon last Sunday. But there was no talk of a world record attempt when it came to London. The pacesetters had been instructed to bring the field through the first half of the race in 61:45, which is 2:03:30 pace for a full marathon.
That pace never materialized as the seven-runner lead pack ran the first four 5-kilometer segments of the race in 14:45, 14:41, 14:54, and 14:52.
The lead group ran their fifth five-kilometer segment in 14:29 – the fastest of the race – but even at that point, the projected finish time was 2:04:23.
The lead pack was still comprised of seven runners when they came through 30 kilometers in 1:28:49 after running the previous five kilometers in 15:08. However, Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia had dropped back when the group came through 35 kilometers in 1:43:54 after a 15:05 five-kilometer split.
Bekele, one of the greatest all-around distance runners in history and a former world-record holder in the 5,000 and 10,000, had run 2:01:41 in winning in Berlin in 2019. But he had been hampered by injuries for much of the time since then.
The lead pack was reduced to five runners when defending champion Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia fell away around 37 kilometers.
Kipruto, Abdi, Gebresilase, and fellow Ethiopians Kinde Atanaw and Birhanu Legese comprised the top five at that point, but the pack soon began to break apart as Kipruto applied the pressure.
A lead that was two seconds after 38 kilometers had grown to 17 seconds over Abdi and Gebresilase when Kipruto passed 40 kilometers in 1:58:27 following a 14:33 five-kilometer split.
His final time of 2:04:39 gave him a winning margin of 33 seconds over Gebresilase and 40 seconds over Abdi, the bronze medalist in the Olympic Games last year and in the World Championships this year.
“I did my best and I won,” Kipruto said. “I’m really happy.”
After the first three finishers, Atanaw placed fourth in 2:05:27 and Bekele was fifth in 2:05:53, an age-40 world best. Legese finished sixth in 2:06:11 and Lemma was seventh in 2:07:26.
Brett Robinson of Australia placed eighth in 2:09:52 to become the sixth man from his country to run under 2:10 in the marathon.