Ethiopia's Yemane Adhane Spoils The Party & Wins 2012 Rotterdam Marathon in 2:04:47

Mosop's WR Attempt Ends With 3rd Place Showing (2:05:02)

Tiki Gelana Runs 2:18:57 To Become 4th Fastest Woman In History

By LetsRun.com
April 15, 2012

2011 was seemingly the year of the marathon for the Kenyan men, as Kenyan men dominated across the globe and set course records at all of the five majors.

Well someone forgot to send the memo to the Ethiopian men that they were no longer relevant on the world scene, as early in 2012 the marathon seemingly belongs to Ethiopia.

In January, in the first elite marathon of the year in Dubai, Ethiopian men took 10 of the top 11 spots and seven of them broke 2:06, whereas in all of history previously only six Ethiopians had gone sub 2:07.


Mosop Was Stopped In Rotterdam

That Ethiopian trend of success continued today at the 2012 Rotterdam Marathon which was hyped as a world record attempt by Kenya's Moses Mosop, who had run 2:03:06 on the record-ineligible Boston course last April before getting the course record in Chicago. Mosop's assault of Patrick Makau's 2:03:48 world record came up short in windy conditions.  To add insult to injury, he was beaten by two Ethiopians.

The race started out blisteringly fast as the leaders went through half-way in an 1:01:37. Before the leaders had reached 25k, the pace had proved too hot to handle for Mosop and it was just two Ethiopians, Yemane Adhane and Getu Feleke, that remained with the pacers. At 30k, the clock read 1:27:42 which meant the runners were still on world record pace - 2:03:21 pace. Soon however, the blustery conditions and fast early pace would take its toll on the leading duo as by 40k - 1:57:56 - the leading duo had slowed to 2:04:24 pace. To his credit, even though he was dropped shortly after half-way, Mosop never gave up and tried to rally to at least salvage a victory.

However, the Ethiopians didn't crack. They remained side by side until Adhane pulled away with approximately 500 meters remaining to grab the victory in 2:04:47 to Feleke's 2:04:50 and Mosop's 2:05:02.

The results mean now that all of the top 5 marathon times for 2012 belong to the Ethiopian men.

1    2:04:23                Ayele Abshero                  ETH Dubai                     27 Jan 
2    2:04:47                Yemane Adhane                  ETH Rotterdam                 15 April
3    2:04:50                Getu Feleke                    ETH Rotterdam                 15 April
4    2:04:50                Dino Sefer                     ETH Dubai                     27 Jan 
5    2:04:54                Markos Geneti                  ETH Dubai                     27 Jan                                 

Meet Yemane Adhane
Who is Yemane Adhane, you ask? The 27-year old came into today's race as a seasoned marathoner as he'd run 14 previous marathons, only three of which had resulted in victory, so today's win and 2:04:48 time was certainly a big shock. Winning Rotterdam is certainly much more significant than winning in Macau in 2008 (2:15:06), in Gongju in 2009 (2:08:52), or in Taipei in December (2:10:24). Prior to today's race, Adhane's pb was 2:06:29 which he ran in January in the Dubai marathon to get 10th. He only had one other sub 2:07 to his name - a 2:06:30 in Paris in 2009.

And for those of you that are paying close attention, yes you read that right. This is his third marathon since December.

December 18 - 1st place Taipei (2:10:24)
January 27 - 10th in Dubai (2:06:29)
April 15 - 1st in Rotterdam (2:04:48)

Now to be fair, Adhane didn't come into the race totally un-credentialed save for a 2:06:29 and a 2:06:30. His career-best achievement might have been his 4th place showing at the 2009 world championships in Berlin in the marathon.

That being said, the runner-up, Feleke, came in with much better credentials as he ran 2:05:44 last October to get the win in Amsterdam.

What About The Non-Africans?
In terms of non-Africans on the men's side, Dutchman Koen Raymaekers finished sixth in 2:10:35, and Canadian Dylan Wykes, who ran collegiately for Providence, finished seventh in 2:10:47. Wykes' time was a big pb for him (previous pb 2:12:39) and was well under the Canadian Olympic standard of 2:11:30. As a result, he'll join Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis on the Canadian Olympic team. It's been 12 years since a Candian man has run the Olympic marathon and in 2012 they'll have 3 competitors.

The one negative for Wykes was that Jerome Dayton's 2:10:09 national record from December of 1975 lives to see another day even though Wykes went after the record as he had a sub 1:05 first half split. 

(David Monti is reporting that Raymaekers has made the Dutch Olympic team with that mark but other reports indicate he needed a sub-2:10).

Women's Race  - Tiki Gelana Becomes 4th Fastest In History

The focus pre-race in Rotterdam certainly was on the men but in some ways Ethiopia's Tiki Gelana actually stole the headlines.

The 24-year old became the 4th fastest women in history as she ran 2:18:57 for the win which is the 7th best female performance ever in the marathon. Gelana came into the race with a 2:22:08 pb which she earned in winning Amsterdam in October.

Men's and women's race highlights appear at the bottom of this article.

All Time Top 7 Performance In The Women's Marathon

        1      2:15:25    Paula Radcliffe                    GBR     17.12.73    1      London                        13.04.2003
        2      2:17:18    Paula Radcliffe                    GBR     17.12.73    1      Chicago                       13.10.2002
        3      2:17:42    Paula Radcliffe                    GBR     17.12.73    1      London                        17.04.2005
        4      2:18:20    Liliya Shobukhova                  RUS     13.11.77    1      Chicago                       09.10.2011
        5      2:18:47    Catherine N'dereba                 KEN     21.07.72    1      Chicago                       07.10.2001
        6      2:18:56    Paula Radcliffe                    GBR     17.12.73    1      London                        14.04.2002
        7      2:18:57    Tika Gelana                        ETH     22.10.87    1      Rotterdam                      15.4.12 

                        

Men's Race Highlights

 Women's Race Highlights
 

More: *Nice AP - SAPA Recap of Race
MB: Rotterdam Marathon live stream *New huge PR for Moses Mosop!

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