Mumbai (Maharashtra): Ethiopian Hayle Lemi Berhanu became only the second athlete to defend the men’s crown in the history of the Tata Mumbai Marathon, a World Athletics Gold Label Road Race, as he successfully crossed the finish line in 2:07:50. With the victory on Sunday, Lemi replicated the feat of the Kenyan runner John Kelai who won two back-to-back titles here during 2007-2008.
An elated Lemi stated, “It’s been an amazing run, am feeling extremely good. The best part is the support on the course. I was trying for the course record, but the last few km were a little tough."
Lemi was among the dozen athletes, who set off together in the lead bunch with compatriots Kinde Atanaw, and Haymanot Alew as pacer Dominic Ngeno did the front running. Kenya’s Dickson Kiptoo and Alew briefly took the lead slightly ahead of the others to cover the first 20K in 60:30.
At 30K, the leading group became thinner with Kenyan Joshua Kogo and Ethiopia’s Mitku Tafa remaining with Lemi, Alew and Kiptoo. Both Lemi and Alew increased their pace and broke away from the rest thereafter.
Lemi then started running fast and was alone in the last five kilometres. With no one to push him, he had to make his assessment to run the waning stages of the race and hence missed an opportunity to improve his last year's winning time and course record (2:07:32). His teammates Haymnot Alew (2:09:03) and Mitku Tafa (2:09:58) took the next two places on the podium.
Newcomer Aberash wins top prize on her debut
As in the previous edition, the Ethiopians dominated the scene once again and filled the podium spots in both men's and women’s races. Anchialem Haymanot could not accomplish her ambition to win another title in Mumbai in the women’s race.
Haymanot, a pre-race favorite for the top spot, was running with the lead group of seven until midway and started showing fatigue thereafter to fall back to finish sixth (2:29:58).
Aberash Minsewo won the top prize on her debut. Minsewo made her marathon debut here, started her career as a middle-distance runner and won the World Youth (U18) championships 3,000m gold in Nairobi in 2017.
Having pocketed a bronze medal at the same distance in the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires the following year, she started taking part in the road races in 2021.