Ethiopia’s Lemi and Haymanot set course records in Tata Mumbai Marathon

Mumbai sprung to life early on a nippy Sunday morning as over 55,000 people took part in the 18th edition of the Tata Mumbai Marathon.

Records tumbled in Asia’s most prestigious race as the Ethiopian duo of Hayle Lemi and Anchalem Haymanot won with new course records to take home USD 45,000 winners prize and a course record bonus of USD 15,000 each.

Lemi took advantage of the slow pace in the first half of the men’s race. The 2016 Boson Marathon winner ran alongside the defending champion and countryman Derara Hurisa, Kenyan Philemon Rono and half a dozen other runners as they passed through the iconic Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link towards the halfway mark.

Lemi, Rono and another Ethiopian Hailu Zewdu broke away from the rest of the group at the 26th kilometre. The three athletes climbed the Peddar Road together on their return journey.

Lemi increased his pace while coming down to enter Chowpatty beach corner and started running on the Marine Drive well ahead of the other two. His 2:07:32 is an early season lead in the world this year. Rono clocked 2:08:44 and Zewdu 2:10:23 for the other two places on the podium.

The women started their race at a fast pace and there was a keen tussle between five Ethiopian runners at the midway stage. Worknesh Alemu, the 2019 champion here, drew from her past experience on the course to take the lead at that point.

However, Haymanot, a marathon debutant, broke away from Alemu. Rahma Tusa, two times Rome Marathon winner, and 2022 Sydney marathon runner-up Letebrhan Haylay ran shoulder-to-shoulder with her.

“Running along with these two experienced runners with fast timings to their credit was really a challenge, but I gained much experience from them,’ Haymanot revealed during a post-race press conference.

For the first time, the podium finishers in the women’s section finished under 2:25, as Tusa (2:24:22) also finished under the previous course record of 2:24:33 held by Valentine Kipketer (Kenya) since 2013.

Gopi T made a winning return to competitive action while Chavi Yadav pulled off a spectacular victory on her marathon debut in the Indian race.

Olympian Gopi, the first Indian male to win the Asian Marathon Championship in 2017, clocked 2:16:41 to finish on top of the domestic Elites and 10th overall in the 18th edition of the USD 405,000 prize fund World Athletics Gold Label Road Race.

 

 

 

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