Abdisa Tola and her sister-in-law Dera Dida overcome a star-studded field to bag the 2023 Dubai Marathon titles.
Abdisa, whose brother Tamirat Tola is the husband to Dida, ran a brilliant race to win the men’s title.
The 22-year-old, who was making his full marathon debut, reached the tape in 2:05.42 - a world-leading time.
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He was closely followed by compatriots Deresa Gelete and Haymanot Alew in a race in which no Kenyan appeared in the top 10 positions.
Gelete crossed the finishing line at 2:05.51 ahead of Alew who clocked 2:05.57.
In the women’s category, Dida outpaced her opponents to win the race in an impressive time of 2:21.11.
The two-time world cross-country championships silver medalist led her fellow countrywomen to a clean podium finish.
Ruti Aga, a 2019 Tokyo Marathon champion, settled for a second-place finish in 2:21.24 ahead of Siranesh Yirga who clocked 2:21.59.
Ethiopian road race runners dominated this year’s edition scooping the ten positions in both the women’s and men’s categories.
Dida and Tola were each awarded USD 80,000 (approximately Ksh9,600,000) for emerging the winners.
The event was staged for the first time since 2019 due to the pandemic which made it difficult to organize events of such magnitude for nearly two years.
Tamirat is also a star athlete. Some of the high-profile events he has managed to win recently include the 2022 World Athletics Championships and the 2021 Amsterdam marathon titles.
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