ERITREA’S ESTIFANOS WINS THE BEPPU-OITA MARATHON WITH ANOTHER PERSONAL BEST
Surging away from Japanese rivals Hiroki Kadota and Hiroyuki Yamamoto after 32km, Eritrea’s Tewelde Estifanos won the 64th Beppu-Oita Marathon, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, in a personal best 2:10:18 on Sunday (1). After slow
Surging away from Japanese rivals Hiroki Kadota and Hiroyuki Yamamoto after 32km, Eritrea’s Tewelde Estifanos won the 64th Beppu-Oita Marathon, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, in a personal best 2:10:18 on Sunday (1).
After slow start, with the leaders covering the first kilometre in 3:11 and the second kilometre in 3:10, the pace picked up and 5km was reached in 15:27.
The pace then steadily increased: 5km to 10km took 15:08, and the 10-15km split was 14:53.
By 20km, passed in 1:00:43, the lead pack contained 10 runners. At 30km, with a split of 1:31:54), shortly after the pace makers left the course, there were still six runners in contention at the front: Estifanos, Uganda’s 2014 champion Abraham Kiplimo and the Japanese quartet of Kadota, Yamamoto, Yusei Nakao and Satoshi Yoshii.
However, Estifanos soon started to increase the pace and Nakao and Yoshii were left behind.
The defending champion Kiplimo was the next to let go, leaving Estifanos, Kadota and Yamamoto to fight it out for the top spot on the podium.
Estiganos surged again after 32km; first Yamamoto and then, finally, Kadota had to let him go.
At 35km, the Eritrean was 10 seconds ahead of Kadota who, in turn, was another 10 seconds ahead of Yamamoto.
After 35km, Estifanos steadily slowed, taking 15:52 between 35km and 40km, but he still increased his advantage over his flagging pursuers and won by 28 seconds.
Estifanos became the first Eritrean to win the Beppu-Oita Marathon in its 64 years history and it continued his upward curve over the classic distance. It was the fourth straight personal best in as many marathons and his finishing position has also improved in those four races.
He made his marathon debut in the 2013 Beppu-Oita Marathon, where he was 11th with 2:16:13. Next was the 2013 Gold Coast Marathon where Estifanos improved his time to 2:13:10, when he finished third, and in the 2014 Melbourne Marathon Estifanos improved to second with 2:11:47.
Kadota finished second with 2:10:46, nearly two minutes better than his previous best of 2:12:25, which was recorded in the 2012 Beppu-Oita Marathon.
Yamamoto, a marathon debutant with a half marathon best of 1:02:43, was third with 2:11:48 while Kiplimo fell off the pace after 30km and finished fourth with 2:12:23.
Kiplimo was followed home by Satoshi Yoshii, Naoki Okamoto in 2:12:48 and 2:12:55 respectively.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
Kabire February 1, 2015
Job well done Estifanos. Not only is running very healthy but it will also buy you freedom.
Eritreawit February 1, 2015
Job well done Tewelde Estifanos, we are proud of you.
stinking HGDF leaders, you are trying to bury Eritrean talent but it is not going to work for you, Eritreans shine where ever they are.
By the way who is giving negative ratings for this article losers?
AHMED SALEH February 2, 2015
Eritrawit
Me too sometimes I wonder who the heck are
these people who give poor ratings .
As far as I noticed better ignore whoever they
are . Just keep up to be yourself with pride & confidence .
weldu birhan February 1, 2015
ethiopians have run for 30 years in our struggle from our gedli heros,this guy is not running from badme ,we should be proud of him.
Concerned Eritrawi February 1, 2015
Congratulations, it a wonderful thing to hear some good news for a change.
Hidat February 2, 2015
TEWELDE ENQUEEE…..TEWELEDKA .ENQUEE HAGOSEKA HAGOSENA.!!!!!!!!
MightyEmbasoyra February 2, 2015
Congrats Tewolde on your success but this is your success not Eritrea’s. We don’t have shortage of runners: think of Tadesse and that idiot meb Kiflezghi. A developed country needs engineers, not runners. Gosh, come on people, you are so delighted by this news. Our country is in a mess and this is a good news for the country? I don’t see it that way. So what if we have 1000 runners? Eritrea will still be in deep shit. Assuming isayas is gone with his goons, runners won’t build the country. get real.
tamrat tamrat February 2, 2015
Congra estifanos!
ERITRAWIT February 2, 2015
Kem Gorebabtey hager zgber zelo m-bale teteharemena Eritrawi guya serew entay keyblena.
Congra my Brother!!!!!
HGDF February 2, 2015
ሃዲሙ ዲኹም ትብሉ ዘለኹም ዋላስ ተዓዊቱ? ናይ ዝሃደሙ ኣትለታት እምበር ናይ ዝተዓወቱ ኣቅሪብኩም ሰሚዐ ስለዘይትፈልጥ ገሪሙኒ። ኢትዮጵያዊ ደኣ መሲሉኩም ከይከዉን?
selamawit2 February 5, 2015
Congratulations Estefanos and please don’t forget your roots, don’t forget those brothers and sisters, which are much less luckier than you and me.
Everyone of us who gets attention from the public, should use this also to speak up for our brothers and sisters in hardship.