Blessed with a favourable weather, Ethiopians Girma Assefa and Koren Yal dominated set new course and Indian All-Comers records at the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon on Sunday (16).
Assefa took the men's race in 2:09:54 while Yal clocked 2:26:56 at this IAAF Gold Label Road Race.
Assefa halts Kenyan men's domination
The climate was relatively cooler than in the past editions when the runners took off on Sunday (16) morning. A group of 20 athletes ran together through the first 10Km mark near the Haji Ali shrine in 30:40. Pre-race favourite John Kelai of Kenya, a two-time winner here in 2007 and 2008 as well as the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, was also in the lead group but slightly behind the leaders.
As expected Kenyan pacer Simon Kismili led the race initially before his compatriot Kipkemei Mutai took on the responsibility thereafter. The runners passed 20Km in 1:01:17 and started climbing uphill when the pacers slowed down and trailing behind at the half-way. Luckily the three minute per kilometer pace continued and the 14 men entered Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link after the 25th kilometer in about 78 minutes.
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