In what will go down as a classic in Indian road running history, Ethiopia’s Tsehay Gemechu won the women’s crown while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe took the men’s title at the 15th edition of the TCS World 10K Bengaluru, a World Athletics Gold Label road race.
Sawe, who moved to fifth on the world 10km all-time list with his PB of 26:49 in Herzogenaurach last month, ran a superbly-paced race to win in a close contest and Tsehay Gemechu was equally impressive in the way she kicked on at the end. Tsehay ran 31:38 while Sawe’s winning time was 27:58.
It was an Ethiopian top three in the women’s race, with Fotyen Tesfay finishing four seconds behind Tsehay and the experienced Dera Dida only seven seconds shy of the winner.
It all came down to the final kilometer after the trio ran together, but a strong finish by Tsehay secured this year’s Tokyo Marathon runner-up the 10km crown. In her previous visit to Bengaluru in 2019, Tsehay had finished sixth.