RECORDS TUMBLE AT CHEVRON HOUSTON MARATHON & ARAMCO HALF-MARATHON

RECORDS TUMBLE AT CHEVRON HOUSTON MARATHON & ARAMCO HALF-MARATHON
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2024 Race Outcomes Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission. 

HOUSTON (14-Jan) — On a cold and sunny morning right here, a number of vital information fell on the Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Half-Marathon.  Within the marathon Zouhair Talbi grew to become the primary Moroccan man to win the race, and his time of two:06:39 broke the race’s 12-year-old course file by 12 seconds.  Within the half-marathon, Sutume Kebede of Ethiopia ran the fastest-ever half-marathon on U.S. soil by a lady: 1:04:37.  Behind her Weini Kelati smashed the USA half-marathon file, clocking 1:06:25 in her marathon debut.  Kenyan Edna Kiplagat, 44, smashed the world finest for masters girls, clocking 1:07:52.

OBIRI IS UPSTAGED

Reigning Boston and New York Metropolis Marathon champion Hellen Obiri of Kenya attacked the half-marathon course proper from the beginning, clicking by way of 5-Okay in 15:16. However Kebede wasn’t intimidated.  She stayed with Obiri, as did her compatriot Buze Diriba, working with a bunch of males.  Kelati, working in her first half-marathon, selected to hold again.

Obiri stored up the excessive tempo, hitting 10-Okay in 30:28, placing her on observe to run 1:04:17, effectively beneath the tempo wanted to interrupt Vicoty Chepngeno’s course and all-comer file of 1:05:03.  However that tempo proved to be too quick, and previous the midway mark, Obiri started to fall again.  By the 15-Okay mark, Kebede had 5 seconds on Obiri (her time of 45:42 was a pending USA all-comers file), and the Ethiopian was by no means challenged for the rest of the race. She gained a complete of $27,000 for the win, plus the course file.

“I’m very joyful to be right here, and I’m very grateful for the help that I acquired from the Houstonians,” Kebede stated in her post-race broadcast interview.  Talking by way of an interpreter, she added: “The course was actually nice. It’s my first time working right here.  If the organizers need to invite me again, I can attempt to run quicker.”

Obiri held on for second in 1:06:07, and one other Ethiopian, Buze Diriba, sprinted previous Kelati within the ultimate meters to take third in 1:06:24.  Nonetheless, Kelati’s 1:06:25 was 13 seconds underneath Keira D’Amato’s 2023 file of 1:06:38.

“I can’t consider it,” stated Kelati.  “It’s wonderful.  It’s my first half-marathon.”  She added: “I’d identical to to coach and run extra half-marathons.  I’d like to get quicker and quicker within the half marathon and transfer as much as the marathon.”

On the lads’s aspect, the tempo was extra conservative.  A pack of 5 was nonetheless collectively on the 20-Okay level: Milkesa Tolosa and Jemal Yimer from Ethiopia, Wesley Kiptoo of Kenya, and Biya Simbassa and Diego Estrada from Flagstaff, Arizona.  Yimer had gained the race in 2020 and knew the course.  He waited for the ultimate 400 meters to indicate his playing cards and draw back from his rivals.  He was timed in 1:00:42, only one second up on Kiptoo who made a late cost for the road to safe the runner-up spot.  Tolosa obtained third (1:00:45), Simbassa fourth (1:00:45), and Estrada fifth (1:00:49).

“The course is a very nice course, and I additionally got here right here actually ready to indicate how good the course is,” Yimer stated by way of a translator in his post-race broadcast interview.  He continued: “It labored out very effectively.”

4-time Olympian Galen Rupp, who used as we speak’s race as a tune-up for the USA Olympic Crew Trials Marathon in three weeks– completed 14th in 1:02:37.

TALBI COMES FROM BEHIND

Ignoring the quick, early tempo, Talbi selected to run his personal race as we speak.

“He hasn’t been in our image the entire time,” stated commentator Jon Warren, the pinnacle observe and area coach at Rice College who was commentating on the native tv broadcast.

Certainly, on the midway mark, when Germany’s Hendrik Pfeiffer was main a pack of 4 at 1:03:02, Talbi was again in sixth place 38 seconds again.  He was snug there and easily biding his time.

“I wanted to not get too excited and go too quick at first of the race,” stated Talbi.  “That’s what I did.  I used to be affected person all the way in which.”

However at 35-Okay, Talbi put the hammer down.  He ran 14:46 from 35 to 40-Okay and rapidly constructed a 22-second lead.  Ethiopia’s Tsedat Ayana –who misplaced final yr’s race in a dash end in opposition to Kenya’s Dominic Ondoro– was nonetheless inside putting distance however couldn’t make up the space on Talbi by the end.  Talbi broke the tape at 2:06:39, 21 seconds forward of Ayana.  Pfeiffer completed third with an Olympic qualifying mark and private finest of two:07:14, and Australia’s Pat Tiernan additionally obtained a Paris 2024 qualifier and private finest of two:07:45.

For Talbi, as we speak’s end result put him in an excellent place to realize Olympic crew choice.  He’s now the second-fastest Moroccan inside the qualification window, and his victory right here ought to bolster his case with Moroccan federation selectors.

“I’m the second quickest Moroccan proper now,” Talbi stated.  “I put myself ready for the federation to pick me for the Olympic Video games.”

Pfeiffer is now the fourth-fastest German qualifier, and Tiernan is the second-fastest Australian.  Tiernan is almost assured of Olympic crew choice as a result of he’s solely the second Australian to run underneath the usual of two:08:10.

The ladies’s race went out aggressively, and thru 35-Okay, the leaders had been heading in the right direction file tempo.  Behind male pacemaker Callum Neff, three girls –Bosena Mogesie and Rahma Tusa of Ethiopia, and Vicoty Chepngeno of Kenya– had been working collectively by way of 30-Okay (1:38:40).  All three girls regarded robust, particularly Chepngeno, who was making her marathon debut.

Mogesie was the primary to falter and struggled within the latter levels of the race.  She would solely end sixth in 2:26:59.  Tusa dropped Chepngeno from 30 to 35-Okay and was robust sufficient to carry the result in the end.  Her end time of two:19:33 was glorious (the third-fastest ever in Houston), however she missed the extra $35,000 she would have earned had she damaged Hitomi Niiya’s course file of two:19:12.

“I’m very, very joyful to be right here,” Tusa stated by way of a translator.  “I’m very joyful to be in Houston.  My coach wished me to run in Dubai (which was final Sunday), however I wished to race in Houston.”  She continued: “I reward God that I got here right here and raced effectively.”

In fourth place, Germany’s Deborah Schöneborn ran an Olympic qualifier of two:24:54 (she had already run a qualifier in Sevilla in 2023 of two:25:52, however she is now the fourth-fastest German girl within the qualifying window).  Jovana De La Cruz of Peru claimed an Olympic qualifying spot by only one second, working 2:26:49.  She is simply the second Peruvian girl to make a qualifying time, so she is almost assured of Olympic crew choice.

Canada’s Natasha Wodak, who was on a 2:24:16 tempo at midway, pale within the second half and ended up ninth in 2:28:42.  She had hoped to qualify for her third Olympics right here.