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Men's Marathon |
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Gezahegne ABERA of Ethiopia won the first gold medal of the Edmonton World Championships on Friday evening, adding the world title to his Olympic crown by outsprinting Kenya's Simon BIWOTT in one of the closest and most thrilling finishes ever seen in a major marathon.
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The two runners entered the Commonwealth Stadium together, with ABERA on the Kenyan's shoulder. He made his move with just 200m to go, pulling clear round the bend. But BIWOTT wouldn't lie down. Having led for much of the last five kilometres he wasn't going to beaten easily and fought back down the home straight, missing the gold medal by just a second from ABERA's 2:12:42.
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Italy's European champion Stephano BALDINI was third in 2:13:18, having fought off the Olympic bronze medallist Tesfaye TOLA of Ethiopia over the last few kilometres.
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ABERA's victory makes him the first man ever to hold both the world championship and Olympic titles at the same time. He ran the second half of the race some two minutes faster than the first.
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The real race didn't begin until well after the half way point, though, passed in a relatively pedestrian 1:06:00, when early and long-time leader Ronnie HOLASSIE of Trinidad was swallowed up by a huge pack. All the favourites were there, apart from South Africa's 1996 Olympic champion Josiah THUGWANE, who was the one notable non-starter.
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Italy's Giacomo LEONE and 2001 Boston Marathon winner Bong-Ju LEE of Korea led the field down the slope to Groat Road, and a pack of some 20 runners crossed the bridge just after the 25km point (passed in 1:19:16).
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A minute later this year's London Marathon winner Abdelkadir EL MOUAZIZ of Morocco made the first decisive move of the race, pulling away from the field as they crossed the river and headed into Hawrelak Park.
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At that point world record holder Khalid KHANNOUCHI of USA called it a day. He had fallen behind some 5km earlier and said later he has been suffering from patella tendonitis recently. South Africa's Gert THYS was also suffering in the warm evening and pulled up soon afterwards, as did LEE Bong-Ju of Korea, this year's Boston marathon winner.
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Up ahead EL MOUAZIZ looked like he was flying towards the gold. He strode up the hill out of the river valley and by the 30km mark (1:34:51) on University Avenue he had a nine second lead on the chasing group of five athletes, including ABERA, TOLA, BIWOTT, BALDINI, and Japan's Shigeru ABURAYA.
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But the Ethiopians gathered their resources and reined in their Moroccan rival. ABURAYA was dropped briefly, but clawed his way back. BIWOTT was still looking strong, though, and led the group of six towards the 35km mark by which time EL MOUAZIZ had paid for his earlier surge and slipped off the back. ABURAYA too was struggling to stay in touch.
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There were four runners left in the race as they crossed the river again, heading north into downtown Edmonton. Just before the two hour mark BIWOTT made the ultimate move, breaking the leading group of four in half. Only ABERA was able to stay with him as TOLA and BALDINI fell back.
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The Ethiopian looked strong and kicked away from the Kenyan down 109th Street, turning into 104th Avenue some 10 metres clear. But it was not a winning surge as BIWOTT came back again to lead the pair down Stadium Road and into the stadium, giving the world championships a fittingly exhilarating finish to its first event.
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| Ethiopia won the World Marathon Cup team competition from Japan with Itlay third. |
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