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Press Release - Dubai Marathon - 1/7/24

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                               DUBAI MARATHON:         

      Tigist Ketema breaks debut world record in Dubai while a former 
                      javelin thrower takes men's title
				
Did we mention that the Dubai Marathon has a tendency to be won by 
debutants? Well, that tradition was bolstered in some style this morning in 
the first major marathon in Olympic year when, first, nineteen year old 
Addisu Gobena of Ethiopia, barely two years in training as a runner, beat 
an experienced field to win the men's race in a time of two hours, five 
minutes and one second. He was then upstaged less than a dozen minutes 
later when a recent 1500 metres specialist, his compatriot Tigist Ketema 
won the women's event in 2.16.07, beating the former fastest women's 
marathon debut by 42 seconds. That record, incidentally was held by another 
Ethiopian, Letesenbet Gidey.

And it doesn't end there.

With the return of two more Ethiopians, Dera Dida and Ruti Aga, first and 
second last year, the women's race was always expected to be more 
interesting than the men's in this, the 23rd edition of the race. But in 
gate-crashing her peers' party, Ketema made it doubly so. With Aga 
determined to avenge her close defeat last year, she took the early 
initiative, and when the field began to split up after halfway, Dida began 
to cede ground to her rival. But, loping along beside them both in the 
early stages, then tracking Aga comfortably when they forged a lead 
together, Ketema's ease began to look more and more ominous for the more 
experienced marathoner.

So decisive was Ketema's move with less than five kilometres to run that 
she ended up beating Aga by over two minutes. The latter ran 2.18.09 with 
last year's winner Dida taking third in 2.19.29, still over a minute faster 
than 12 months ago here.

The following press conference proved revelatory. After thanking her coach 
Gemedu Dedefo for transforming her from a 1500 metres specialist to a 
(successful) marathoner in barely a year of increased work, Ketema said, "I 
was quite afraid of the distance before I raced a marathon, but at the end, 
I wondered why". Her rivals might like to think it was beginner's luck, but 
a chat with Dedefo dispelled that notion. "Judging by her training, I 
thought she could do two hours, fifteen, but I can't be dissatisfied with 
what she has done".

Now, if I mention that Dedefo is coach to recent new world record holder 
Tigist Asefa (2.11.53 in Berlin in September), to Amane Beriso (2.14.58 in 
Valencia a month ago), to Tamirat Tola (world championship gold and silver 
at marathon), then you'll see the sort of company that Ketema is keeping. 
The theory that excellence breeds excellence gets quite a bit of traction.

You might say the same for Gobena. He was rather more aggressive than 
Ketema; he was always the one pushing the pace, even when there were still 
a dozen contenders dogging his footsteps well into the second half of the 
race. But his relentless assault from the front put paid to all of them. 
And his story, while it bears similarities to Ketema's has one salient 
difference. He too thanked family and friends for his success; but the 
gob-smacker was the fact that until two years ago, Gobena was a mediocre 
javelin thrower, with a best of 52 metres – which would barely trouble 
officials standing halfway down the stadium infield, while the world record 
is close to 100 metres. But Auntie Ruti (Aga is the younger sister of 
Gobena's dad) suggested he might be better off running. So he started 
training seriously with Aga. Two years later, he is $80,000 better off. "I 
think I made the right decision," he said, in such a downbeat fashion that 
should he eventually want another career change, he might try stand-up 
comedy. 

More seriously, these results will provide little encouragement to first 
world long distance runners. Already long aware that being born and 
nurtured at altitude gives a huge advantage to Ethiopians and Kenyans in 
particular - training in thinner air, then coming to race at sea-level is 
the human equivalent of turbo-charging a combustion engine - these results 
from athletes who have barely had time to train properly for the marathon 
will afford further dismay. One way to combat that would be to import 
excellence. Both Melat Kejeta, fourth in the women's race, and Samuel 
Fitwi, fifth in the men's were born in East Africa. Those excellent 
performances, 2.21.47 and 2.06.27, easily personal bests have qualified 
them to run in the Olympic Games for their naturalized country, Germany.

The expected warm morning didn't materialize, temperatures keeping at 
16/17C (61/62F) throughout the race with a bit of cloud cover when it got 
light after the 6am start. And the return for the first time in four years 
to the fast course along Jumeirah Beach Road provided a new women's course 
record for race director, Peter Connerton, who said, "Because of the 
pandemic and the one-off run at Expo City last year, everybody was looking 
forward to coming back to Jumeirah; and the women's result in particular 
justified our expectations".

RESULTS

MEN

    NAME           COUNTRY  TIME   PRIZE/US$
1   GOBENA Addisu    ETH   2.05.01   80,000
2   DUMECHA Lemi     ETH   2.05.20   40,000
3   MEGERSA  Dejen   ETH   2.05.42   20,000   
4   FUFA Abdi        ETH   2.06.23   10,000
5   FITWI Samuel     GER   2.06.27    5,000
6   DAGNACHEW A      ETH   2.06.55    4,000
7   CHEBII Douglas   KEN   2.08.15    3,000
8   TESFAYE Lencho   ETH   2.08.25    2,500
9   TESHAGR Bayelign ETH   2.08.56    2,000
10  DESSIE Abebaw    ETH   2.09.09    1,500

WOMEN
1   KETEMA Tigist    ETH   2.16.07   80,000
2   AGA Ruti         ETH   2.18.09   40,000
3   DIDA Dera        ETH   2.19.29   20,000
4   KEJETA Melat     GER   2.21.47   10,000
5   JEMAL Fozya      ETH   2.21.53    5,000
6   ESHETE Shitaye   BRN   2.21.55    4,000
7   ANMUT Atelel     ETH   2.22.23    3,000
8   AFENIGUS Bet.    ETH   2.25.57    2,500
9   NIGUSE Emebet    ETH   2.27.15    2,000
10  SHIMELS Nurit    ETH   2.28.28    1,500

For more information please visit www.dubaimarathon.org.
 
                                     ###


 

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