Super-fast times set at Dubai Marathon
A series of super-fast times were run at the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon on Friday as Kenya's Ruth Chepngetich and Ethiopia's Getaneh Molla smashed the course records with performances which place them third and sixth on the world all-time lists.
Less than 11 weeks after running a PB 2:18:35 to win the Istanbul Marathon for the second time, Chepngetich improved to an incredible 2:17:08 to claim victory in Dubai, taking more than two minutes off the course record and finishing ahead of Ethiopia's Worknesh Degefa who with 2:17:41 broke Tirunesh Dibaba’s national record.
Those times move Chepngetich and Degefa to No.3 and No.4 on the global all-time rankings, with Paula Radcliffe (2:15:25) and Mary Keitany (2:17:01) the only athletes to have ever gone quicker.
Ethiopia’s Workenesh Edesa finished third in 2:21:05.
Molla won the men's race in 2:03:34 for the fastest ever debut marathon, beating his compatriot Herpassa Negasa by six seconds and improving the previous course record by 26 seconds.
"I certainly didn’t expect to run 2:03," said Molla, who has a 5000m PB of 12:59.58, a half-marathon best of 60:34 and was fifth at the World Half Marathon Championships last year.
"I was hoping for maybe 2:05 or 2:06 so this is a great win for me."
Improving his PB by more than five minutes, Negasa is now the eighth-fastest ever marathoner. They were joined on the podium by their fellow Ethiopian Asefa Mengstu, who ran 2:04:24.
Ethiopia’s Guye Adola had been the holder of the previous fastest ever marathon debut thanks to his 2:03:46 from Berlin in 2017 and he was also racing in Dubai, but dropped out mid-race.
A 14-strong lead group, including three pacemakers, went through half-way in 61:43 but that pace took its toll and by 35km (passed in 1:42:17) it was Molla and Negasa to the fore.
The first half of the women's race was also incredibly fast, with Chepngetich, Degefa and Edesa clocking a 68:10 split.
Edesa dropped back between 25km and 30km, with Chepngetich and Degefa going through 35km in 1:54:00.
Switzerland’s Tadesse Abraham had reportedly been planning to attack the European marathon record of 2:05:11 set by Britain’s Mo Farah in Chicago last year but after running 63:14 at half-way, he finished in 2:09:50 for 10th place.
There was a Swiss double in the wheelchair races, with Marcel Hug and Sandra Graf winning in 1:24:09 and 1:41:03 respectively.
The race, which was available to watch live via a stream embedded on this website, can be watched back in full below or on YouTube here.
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