All eyes on Ethiopian superstar Letesenbet Gidey on her marathon debut this weekend

Justin Lagat wrote this piece on Letesenbet Gidey, WR holder at 5000m, 10,000m and the Half Marathon, as she ventures to 26.2 miles this weekend on the Valencia Marathon on December 4, 2022.

Because the 12 months that has had plenty of athletic actions slowly come to an finish, marathon followers count on to observe an exciting race on one of many quickest marathon programs on this planet when the Trinidad Alfonzo Valencia Marathon occurs this weekend on the 4th of December 2022.

Whereas the boys’s race, with 13 runners with private finest instances of beneath 2:07:00, guarantees to be a much less predictable however thrilling battle to the final phases of the race, the ladies’s race, however, seems to be a one-horse race.

All eyes will probably be on Ethiopia’s famous person, Letensenbet Gidey, who ran an unbelievable half marathon world file of 1:02:52 final 12 months in the identical metropolis, as she makes her marathon debut.

Gidey -who was curiously expelled from faculty for refusing to run in bodily schooling classes- at present holds the ladies’s world information for the 5000m, the ten,000m, the 15K and the half marathon distances.

Because the reigning 10,000m world champion runs on Sunday, followers will probably be watching the time splits intently in projection for 3 anticipated end instances that will probably be of nice curiosity. 2:17:23 is the world’s quickest ladies’s debut time for the marathon; 2:17:16 is the ladies’s course file set by Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir in 2020, and a couple of:14:04 is the ladies’s world file.

Among the many different huge names to observe within the ladies’s race embody three Ethiopian ladies with private finest instances beneath 2hrs 20 minutes. Sutume Kebede (2:18:12), Tiki Gelana (2:18:58) and Tigist Girma (2:19:52) are the three quickest ladies on paper.

Sheilah Chepkirui, a 1:04:36 half marathon runner, will probably be representing Kenya with Monica Ngige (2:22:13) and Fancy Chemutai (2:24:27) Chemutai has a formidable 1:04:52 time within the half marathon distance as properly.

The reigning world champion will lead the boys’s race. Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola. Together with his finest time of two:03:39, he’s nonetheless not the quickest runner on the beginning checklist. The quickest is Getaneh Mollah with 2:03:34. There are 5 different runners within the elite males’s discipline with instances beneath 2:05:00; Dawit Wolde (2:04:27), Jonathan Korir (2:04:32), Hiskel Tewelde (2:04:35), Chalu Deso (2:04:53) and Gabriel Geay (2:04:55)

Alexander Mutiso of Kenya has a private finest time of 57:59 for the half marathon he ran right here lower than two years in the past and will probably be an attention-grabbing debutant to observe within the males’s race. Philemon Kiplimo, Kelvin Kiptum and Milkesa Menghesa would be the different attention-grabbing debutants to be careful for.