The Ethiopian men’s athletes earned a sweeping victory in the 20th edition of the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon on Friday. Getaneh Molla completed the most gruelling 42 kilo meters race with spectacular course records of two hours 03 minutes and 34 seconds to emerge first leaving behind his compatriot Herpessa Negasa at 2: 03.40 and Asefa Mengistu at 2: 04. 24 to take the second and third places, in the order of that.
For Getaneh this course record helped him rank among the sixth fastest time ever run in the history of marathon. He reduced the previous record by 26 seconds. He is the first athlete to finish the race under the 2: 04 time territory in Dubai. That was seen as a great achievement for the Ethiopian debutant. The record shows that last year most of the time was recorded at 2: 04. Considering the time Getaneh’s was given further praise by the organizers as an unofficial world debut record holder.
As usual the Ethiopian domination at Dubai Marathon was visibly seen when they appeared on the podium without giving a place to the outsider. It ended as the Ethiopian affair on the podium. This year the Ethiopians didn’t succeed in the women’s race as it Ethiopian athletes enjoy sweeping victory in Dubai Getaneh Molla at the finishing line was in the previous years. The Kenyan Ruth Chepngetich won the race clocking two hours 17 minutes and 08 seconds. This was also the fastest time in the history of women’s marathon next to the world record holder Paula Radcliffe of Britain and Mary Keitany of Kenya. The Paula Radcliffe world record time is 2: 15.25.
The Kenyan Chepngetich smashed the course record that stood at 2 hours 19 minutes and 17 seconds by more than two minutes. The good weather condition in Dubai helped both athletes, Getaneh and Chepngetich, to achieve this marvellous course result, according to the organizers. In the women’s race Ethiopian Worknesh Degefu emerged second clocking 2: 17. 41 while the other Ethiopian workinesh Edesa won the third place at a time of 2: 21. 05. The second placed Worknesh also broke the previous record held by Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba by 15 seconds.
There is the hope that Worknesh Degefu will go ahead to represent the country in the coming World Athletics Championship that is set to take place in August. There will be only one year for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after the August World Athletics Championship. The Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon has begun 20 years ago in 2000. The race has been recognized by the international Association of Athletics Federation, widely known as IAAF, as Gold Label race like that of the New York City Marathon, Boston Marathon and the prestigious London Marathon.
At the start the Dubai Marathon the domain was for the Kenyans. Ethiopians have begun to win the Dubai Marathon in 2004. The first Ethiopian athletes to win that race were Gashaw Asfaw in the men’s event and Leila Aman in the women’s event. The Ethiopian legendary athlete Haile Gebreselassie has registered a record three successive victories in Dubai, in 2008, 09 and 2010. So far he is the only athlete who made hat-trick in Dubai Marathon.
Dubai Marathon is also known for its generous money prize. Though reduced as time passes, it was indeed a huge sum for long. For many years the money prize was 200 thousand USD for the winners. That made the Dubai Marathon very attractive. But last time the prize was shockingly declined to 80 thousand USD but this year the prize went up to 100 thousand USD for the winners in both men’s and women’s events. Accordingly, the Ethiopian debutant Getaneh Molla pocketed 100 thousand USD while the second placed Herpesa Negasa received USD 40 thousand.
Asefa Mengistu who won the third place took his USD 20 thousand share. As the prize is equal for both the women’s and men’s winners, Ethiopian women’s also took their share for winning the second and third places.
