RAS AL KHAIMAH HALF MARATHON
Alex Matata wins the RAK Part Marathon, and Ejgayehu Taye runs a number one time.
Alex Matata of Kenya had the most efficient profession win within the 18th version of the Ras Al Khaimah Part Marathon early nowadays. However sturdy winds on an surprisingly cool morning in one of the most smaller United Arab Emirates supposed that Ejgayehu Taye’s strive on the ladies’s global file can be blown off path, despite the fact that she had no longer began too speedy.
The breeze and loss of a pacemaker to separate the sector supposed the boys’s race was once rather sedate and over-populated within the first 10k, with 20 males nonetheless in competition at 28min 34sec. However there was once no mistaking Matata within the pack, channeling Michael Jackson with a red glove on his proper hand. ‘For wiping the sweat, that’s all,’ he defined later on. But if colleague and race favourite Isaia Lasoi, who’d been sharing the lead with him, began feeling a groin pressure, Matata started to think the initiative.
Alex Matata wins the 2025 RAK Part Marathon, picture by means of Giancarlo Colombo for Ras AL Khaimah
‘I realized at 14k that I was stronger than the others, so I thought I had a good chance of winning,’ he mentioned. He raised the tempo such that the computed end outdoor 60 mins was once quickly reworked, and his relentless front-running dropped each his opponents and the time, and he ended up taking 17 seconds off his non-public easiest with a win in 59min 20sec.
Lasoi hung in smartly and regarded to have 2d position sewn up, considerably when Gemechu Dida all of sudden dropped again with a kilometer to run. Nonetheless, the Ethiopian rallied and stuck the Kenyan simply prior to the road to get 2d and relegate Lasoi to the similar 3rd spot as final yr. A stride will also be pricey on this game. Whilst Matata took house $20,000, Dida’s last-gasp 2d position earned him $10,000, 4 thousand greater than Lasoi.
Matata is an outlier in Kenya, coming from the capital, Nairobi, as a substitute of the western highlands’ hotbeds of excellence; he’s additionally a rather overdue starter in his early twenties. But if he started working smartly with a 61.03 clocking within the Nairobi half-marathon in 2021, he was once persuaded to transport as much as Eldoret, the heartland of nationwide distance working. Now at 27, a regime of 150 kilometers per week has observed him reworked into a typical winner, with 4 victories and 3 sub-60min clockings in his 5 half-marathons final yr. And now, he’s given himself a New 12 months’s provide. However he’s no longer tempted to transport as much as the marathon but. ‘Not for two years. I still want to run faster at the half-marathon, in the 58 minutes and maybe 57 minutes.
Ejgayegu Taye, photo by Giancarlo Colombo for Ras Al Khaimah Half marathon
In the women’s race, Ejgayehu Taye was once so assured that she may run smartly that she even introduced her personal pacemaker, Wosinew Admasu. And a beginning temperature of 12C (54F) felt just right till she headed into the wind. Even if the predicted contest along with her colleague Girmawit Gebrzihair didn’t materialize (the latter dropped out), issues went to plot for the primary 5 kilometers, which she lined in 14min 57sec. However the tempo and wind took their toll, and she or he fell additional in the back of her agenda. She was once thankful to win 65.52, exactly 3 mins outdoor her goal time. ‘I was expecting to run fast, even maybe get the world record, but the wind was too strong; I felt it was pushing me back. But I’m happy to win’. Her time is an international lead for 2025.
Effects, Males:
1. Alex Matata KEN 59:20
2. Gemechu Dida ETH 59:25
3. Isaia Lasoi KEN 59:26
4. Chimdessa Debele ETH 59:28
5. Gerba Dibaba ETH 59:35
6. Nibret Melak ETH 59:45
7. Hillary Kipkoech KEN 59:53
8. Tesfaye Deriba ETH 59:56
9. Haftamu Gebresilase ETH 59:56
10. Mao Ako TAN 60:28
Ladies:
1. Ejgayehu Taye ETH 65:52
2. Judy Kemboi KEN 66:34
3. Jesca Chelangat KEN 66:53
4. Ftaw Zeray ETH 67:05
5. Gete Alemayehu ETH 67:14
6. Adane Anmaw ETH 68:02
7. Veronica Loleo KEN 68:06
8. Lemlem Hailu ETH 68:07
9. Brillian Jepkorir KEN 68:48
10. Betelihem Afenigus ETH 69:02
For more info, please consult with: https://rakhalfmarathon.com
