Sabastian Sawe put on a sunning performance in his marathon debut on Sunday as he ran the fifth-fastest time ever with a 2:02:05 debut win at the Valencia Marathon.
After a swift 1:01:17 mark at the halfway point by the lead pack, Sawe, Deresa Geleta and Daniel Mateiko were in contention for the win in the closing stages. However, Sawe surged in final 5km in 14:06 and looked effortless as he crossed the finish line and posted the fasted marathon time this year.
“It’s an amazing day, I’m so happy to be here and win in Valencia which is so beautiful. It’s my debut and I’m really happy to win today,” Sawe said to reporters after the race. “First part of course I saw how it was going, second part I try to push myself, finally I was seeing I can do it better. And I did it”
Geleta took second in 2:02:38, a personal best while Mateiko was third in 2:04:24.
But for Sawe, the win his debut marathon on Sunday put him in the company of the best the sport has seen.
Kelvin Kiptum’s 2:00:35 set in Chicago last year is the fastest, followed by Eliud Kipchoge (2:01:09), Kenenisa Bekele (2:01:41) and Sisay Lemma (2:01:48). Sawe is now fifth all-time.
“After this first marathon I’m sure I can obtain more records,” Sawe later said.
In the women’s race, Megertu Alemu dominated in 2:16:49, and pulled away with Stella Chesang, Tiruye Mesfin and Evaline Chirchir sticking close to her in the earlier stages.
Defending champion Amane Beriso was a late scratch and likely would have been Alemu’s biggest challenge on the course.
But by the halfway point, with a 1:07:50 split, Alemu made a decisive move and broke from Chesang and was flanked by her pacers for the remainder of the race.
Her 2:16:49 finish meant, Beriso’s 2:14:58 course record from 2022 would stand for another year. Chesang was second in 2:18:26 and Mesfin took third in 2:18:35.
Before the race, organizers held a moment of silence for the 222 people who died in floods in the region surrounding Valencia in late October. For every runners who crossed the finish line, 3 euros ($3.15 dollars) would be donated to a relief fund.
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