by Race Results Weekly
HAUGER-THACKERY, WELDLIBANOS WIN RAINY JAL HONOLULU MARATHON
By Rich Sands, @thatrichsands.bsky.social
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission.
HONOLULU (14-Dec) –- Tsegay Weldlibanos made a stunning comeback in the final miles to win the JAL Honolulu Marathon on a wet and extremely humid morning while Calli Hauger-Thackery pulled away late to take the women’s title.
The 53rd running of the race –which featured 23,131 starters in the marathon and 8,903 in the companion Start to Park 10-K– began at 5:00 a.m. local time with light rain and high humidity. Predicted downpours held off, although the athletes still had to navigate occasional drizzle and deep puddles along portions of the course.
Pacemaker John Raneri towed the men’s field through 5-K in 15:36 and 10-K in 31:22, with a tight pack that included Weldlibanos –who finished ninth at the TCS New York City Marathon just six weeks ago– and his training partners, defending champion Yemane Haileselassie, Amanuel Mesel and Tesfu Tewelde (all four are natives of Eritrea and are currently living in the United States under political asylum), plus Kenyan Patrick Ketter Kiplagat. Raneri dropped back at that point but continued running and would eventually pace the elite women.
Mesel and Tewelde soon fell off the lead group, though Tewelde never completely lost contact. The four other athletes took turns in the front and passed halfway together in 1:06:30. Tewelde was at one point 25 seconds back but patiently worked his way back and rejoined the pack by 25-K.
In the 18th mile Haileselassie made a decisive move that quickly broke open the race. Only Weldlibanos –who had the fastest personal best in the field after running 2:07:35 to win the 2024 California International Marathon– could match the pace of sub-5:00 miles over the hilly course, but he was unable to respond when Haileselassie surged again in the 21st mile.
From there it appeared that Haileselassie, an Olympic finalist in the steeplechase in 2016 and 2021, might be cruising to another win. Cheered on by the mass participation runners who were heading out on the course in the opposite direction, he put a gap of 21 seconds on Weldlibanos at 35-K.
Alas, the race was not over. By 40-K the tenacious Weldlibanos had cut the deficit to just 4 seconds, and about 400 meters later he took the lead. “Tsegay has a lot of experience, and I know from training that he’s very, very fit,” said James McKirdy, who coaches both athletes in Flagstaff, Arizona. “I had a lot of confidence that he had the strength in his breathing and measurement of effort and if he still had the legs with a mile and a half to go he could still get it. I could tell that Yemane was suffering a lot more than Tsegay.”
Weldlibanos closed hard over the final mile and ran solo to the finish line in Kapiolani Park in Waikiki, clocking 2:13:38. “At 40-K my body was feeling good. I just had to push it,” said the winner, who supplements his racing income with a part-time job as a ride-share driver. “I recovered well from New York and when I caught Yemane I was feeling good.”
Haileselassie (2:14:29) took second, followed by Kiplagat (2:14:56), Tewelde (2:15:40) and Mesel (2:20:06).
In the women’s race, five women ran together through 5-K (18:12), 10-K (35:46) and halfway (1:16:24): Hauger-Thackery, of Great Britain, two-time defending champion Cynthia Limo of Kenya, Eunice Chumba of Bahrain (who finished in the top 10 at the past two Olympic Games), Sintayehu Tilahun of Ethiopia and Vibian Chepkurui of Kenya. As the second half began, Raneri, the men’s rabbit, was now pacing this group.
Tilahun was the first to lose contact (she would eventually drop out) and by 30-K Chepkurui had fallen behind. At the elite fluid station near 30-K, Hauger-Thackery’s bottle had been placed at the wrong table, causing a moment of confusion. She had to double back to grab her bottle, briefly losing ground on the pack. “It was just a mishap, it happens everywhere,” she said. “But to be honest I think it was a blessing in disguise because I was starting to move to the front and it was a bit early for that, so it made me chill. I just reeled them back in and told myself not to panic.”
Shortly before the 2-hour mark, Chumba drifted back and it was down to a two-woman race between Hauger-Thackery and Limo. “It was so empowering. Cynthia is an incredible racer. I knew we were both hurting, but [I told myself] I’ve just got to fake it,” Hauger-Thackery said with a laugh. Just before 23 miles she started to open a gap, slowly extending her margin over the final miles. “I was hurting, but I told myself, ‘You can do anything for three miles,’” she said.
She crossed the finish line in 2:30:43 and moments later dropped to her knees and threw up, admitting that was as much an emotional response as a physical one. “I put a lot on myself this year,” said Hauger-Thackery, who has a personal best of 2:21:24 from the 2024 Berlin Marathon. “So many A-goal races, like Boston Marathon [where she finished 6th], world champs at 10,000 meters [11th place]. Going back and forth between track and road running, and then DNF-ing in Chicago was gut-wrenching.”
She was grateful for the opportunity to close out 2025 with this redemption run. “My only aim for today was to fall back in love with the marathon, finish this race … and get my confidence back,” she admitted. “To do that and win it, I can finish the year happy now.”
Limo was the runner-up in 2:31:33, not far off her winning time from last year (2:31:14). Chumba (2:35:37), Chepkurui (2:40:49) and Japan’s Eri Suzuki (2:50:59) rounded out the top five.
The winners each earned $25,000 in prize mone plus a unique solid gold winner’s medal crafted by Japanese goldsmiths SGC, a race partner.
In the companion Start to Park 10-K Edwin Kurgat of Kenya (29:31) and Annika Reiss (34:19) were the winners (the course distance is not certified). “The warm-up was a downpour, so we got drenched, immediately,” Reiss told Race Results Weekly. “But you know, we got our shower in before the race and then we got to race and it was perfect conditions during the race.”
Newly crowned World Marathon Majors series champion Susannah Scaroni won the women’s wheelchair division in a course record 1:48:37. It was her first time ever in Hawaii.
“I loved the energy,” said Scaroni. “I loved that you could tell that you were by the ocean and lots of happy crowds, even though they were getting soaked.”
Yukina Ota of Japan successfully defended his title in the men’s wheelchair division, clocking a course record 1:28:25
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