A double triumph for Ethiopian runners at the Tata Mumbai Marathon as Amane Gobena and Solomon Deksisa have won at the IAAF Silver Label road race in 2:25:49 and 2:09:34 respectively.
Amane Gobena, now 35, made up for the disappointment of missing out on selection for the IAAF World Championships last summer by winning her first marathon in three years, taking her career record to eight wins from 22 starts over the classic distance.
Amane focused on her task produced an impressive exhibition of solo running past the 21 KM mark. Although she tired slightly over the final three kilometers, the Ethiopian still came home in the second fastest winning time in the history of the Mumbai Marathon. Kitur finished second in 2:28:48, while Shuko Genemo finished third in 2:29:41.
In the men’s event the leading group whited to three past the 35 KM mark, Kipkorir, the 23-year old Solomon and his Ethiopian compatriot Shumet Akalnaw stayed compact for the next five kilometres then Solomon threw down the gauntlet and started to go through the gears. He quickly put a 40-metre gap between himself and Shumet with Kipkorir drifting further back. Despite Shumet clawing back the deficit on Solomon that was to be the order they finished in.Solomon crossed the line in 2:09:34, 26 seconds ahead of Shumet followed with Kipketer third in 2:10:30.
Approximately 44,000 runners took to the roads in Mumbai for six different races over varying distance in what has become an annual event in the city on the third Sunday of January and one of Asia’s biggest mass-participation running events.
