Titus Ekiru and Judith Korir win 2021 Abu Dhabi Marathon titles

Justin Lagat put this piece together on the 2021 Abu Dhabi Marathon. An exciting event in the Middle East, Abu Dhabi had fine performances even with hot and humid conditions in 2021.

Titus Ekiru took the Abu Dhabi Marathon, photo courtesy of Abu Dhabi marathon

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Judith Jeptum Korir took the Abu Dhabi Marathon, photo by Abu Dhabi Marathon

Despite the warm weather conditions at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Marathon, Titus Ekiru ran a good time of 2:06:13 to win the men’s race ahead of Alphonce Simbu of Tanzania in 2:07:50 and Reuben Kipyego, the defending champion, in 2:08:25.

Abel Kirui, the two times world champion just missed the podium after running 2:08:46, but was the only one who managed to dance at the finish line.

Ekiru had made a decisive surge at around the 25km mark. This was after Kipyego had led them across the half marathon point in 1:01:46. But by the 30km point, Ekiru was all alone at the front, some 30 seconds ahead of Kipyego. The gap would extend to 1 minute and 10 seconds at the 35km point. Simbu overtook Kipyego at the 40km point as Ekiru extended the gap to about 1 minute and 45 seconds ahead of them.

A clearly exhausted Ekiru crossed the finish line and lied on the ground to recover before waking up to receive Simbu who came second some 1 minute and 36 seconds later. KIpyego followed to complete the podium in the men’s race.

Consequences of the warm weather were seen when Judith Korir, in the women’s race, almost came to a standstill with less than one kilometer to the finish line, vomiting as she struggled to keep going. Despite slowing down, her winning time of 2:22:30 was still impressive and a huge improvement on her previous personal best time of 2:26:52.

Korir had created such a huge margin by the end of the women’s race to win it by over three minutes and 30 seconds ahead of her next competitor. At the half marathon point, Korir was just one second ahead of everyone, but the gap would continue to grow as she detached herself completely and did a solo run at the front. She crossed the 25km point in 1:23:26, already 25 seconds ahead of Eunice Chumba of Bahrain. By 30km, the gap had grown to 1 minute and 40 seconds. At 35km, it was 3 minutes and 6 minutes. It was 3 minutes and 43 seconds at the 40km mark.

Chumba who was also doing a solo run behind Korir finished second in 2:26:01 ahead of Uganda’s Immaculate Chemutai who came third in a new personal best time of 2:28:30.

Elliott Denman

One of the finest and most prolific writers in our sport, Elliott Denman has written about our sport since 1956, when he represented the US in 1956 Olympic Games at the 50k race walk, the longest event on the Olympic schedule. A close observer of the sport, Elliott writes about all of our sport, combining the skills of a well honed writer with the style of ee Cummings. We are quite fortunate to have Elliott Denman as a friend and advisor.

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