Ethiopian runner Amare Mulu won the men's competition at the 13th Ljubljana Marathon on Sunday while the women's title was taken by Ukrainian Tatyana Mesenceva in near-perfect marathon weather.
Mulu won the 42.195-kilometer race with a time of 2 hours, 14 minutes and 55 seconds, edging Ibrahim Limo of Kenya by 14 seconds, the Slovenian news agency STA reported.
Another Kenyan, Peter Kwalia, was third, over one minute adrift.
However, Mulu missed by over two minutes the 20,000 euros (25,192 U.S. dollars) prize for the new competition record, which is still held by last year's winner, Ukrainian Olexandr Sytkoski (2:12.49).
Interestingly, the record was set in pouring rain last year, while in this year's race the weather was perfect: about 10 degrees centigrade, dry and moderately overcast.
"I am very happy, I was OK with the weather as well as the pace," Mulu, who came into the lead only two kilometers before the finish line.
For the women's event, Mesenceva took the title with 2 hours, 37 minutes and 13 seconds. Russian runner Nadezda Trilinskaya was second (2:37.26) and Ethiopian Gebre Zebenay third (2:39.21).
The 21-kilometer half-marathon, which also counted as the national championship, was dominated by Slovenians, with winners Roman Kejzar (1:05.47) and Daneja Grandovec (1:16.19).
Ljubljana Marathon is the biggest sporting event in Slovenia, including classical marathon, half marathon and various shorter recreational races. |
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