On Sunday morning, Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe made a thunderous debut on the 2024 Valencia Marathon in Valencia, Spain, clocking 2:02:05 to safe the quickest marathon time of the 12 months. Sawe, who can be the world half-marathon champion, delivered a efficiency that not solely earned him the win but additionally positioned him fifth on the all-time checklist. Sawe’s debut is the second quickest in historical past, behind solely his late compatriot Kelvin Kiptum’s 2022 document of two:01:53, additionally set in Valencia.
This 12 months’s Valencia Marathon boasted a deep subject that included veterans Sisay Lemma and Kenenisa Bekele pitched in opposition to debut marathoners Sawe and Hillary Kipkoech. The race is thought for its flat course and quick outcomes, and this 12 months’s version didn’t disappoint, with 10 runners ending below 2:05.
The lead group set off at a blistering tempo, crossing the midway mark in 1:01:17, barely slower than the 2023 cut up however nonetheless on record-setting trajectory. By the 36 km mark, Sawe had surged forward, leaving Ethiopia’s Deresa Geleta and Kenya’s Daniel Mateiko in his wake; Sawe closed the ultimate 5 km in a jaw-dropping 14:06 to safe the win. Ethiopia’s Geleta delivered a career-best 2:02:38 to assert second place, whereas Mateiko, regardless of struggling within the last kilometres, held on for third in 2:04:24.
After an Oct. 29 storm precipitated important injury to the Valencia area, there have been considerations in regards to the 2024 Valencia Marathon even going down. Nonetheless, on Nov. 15 organizers confirmed that the occasion would proceed and could be used as a fundraiser to rebuild native sports activities services and colleges. Sawe devoted his victory to the victims of latest floods in Valencia, highlighting the resilience of the group, and expressed gratitude for the assist of the Valencia crowd. “It’s an incredible day,” he mentioned. “I’m so completely satisfied to win in such an attractive metropolis.
Mergertu Alemu triumphs in girls’s race
The ladies’s race noticed Ethiopia’s Alemu ship a dominant efficiency that noticed her clocking 2:16:49 for her second-fastest marathon ever, lacking the course document by 15 seconds.
Alemu additionally ran 2:16:34 when she took fourth on the 2024 London Marathon; in Feb. 2022, she received the Zurich Seville Marathon in Sevilla, Spain, in 2:18:51.
Alongside her compatriot Tiruye Mesfin, Uganda’s Stella Chesang and Kenya’s Evaline Chirchir, Alemu set out at course-record tempo, chasing the two:14:58 mark set by Amane Beriso in 2022. By 30K, Alemu had dropped the remainder of the lead pack; she maintained her solo cost till the top regardless of slowing within the last stretch. Chesang’s time of two:18:26 set a brand new nationwide document, and Mefisn improved her private greatest to spherical out the rostrum in 2:18:35.
Nice end result for 🇨🇦’s @MalindiElmore in Valencia 🇪🇸
2:26:05 for seventeenth.
That is the quickest time by a Canadian lady in 2024, plus it ought to place her nicely within the rankings for @WATokyo25
📸: @runoutofhell 👑 pic.twitter.com/LEJH6lEkn5
— Marley Dickinson (@marleydickinson) December 1, 2024
Canadian marathoner Malindi Elmore ran 2:26:05 on Sunday to seize seventeenth place; it was her first time working in Valencia. The race fell solely 16 weeks after a gritty efficiency on the Paris Olympic Marathon, the place she was the lone Canadian within the girls’s subject, inserting thirty fifth with a time of two:31:08.
For full outcomes of the 2024 Valencia Marathon, head right here.