by Justin Lagat
Yalemzerf Yehualaw (photo from Madrid) , photo by NN Running team
Justin Lagat wrote this piece on the exciting Hamburg Marathon that happened on Sunday, April 24, 2022. What will happen in Yalemzerf Yehualaw’s next marathon? She is amazing.
Yehualaw was clearly in her own class as she quickly broke away from the rest of the field early in the race, crossing the 5km in 16:11. She was already 23 seconds ahead of her competitors at that point. The margin would increase to 43 seconds at the 10km point where she crossed 32:39, 43 seconds ahead of a chasing pack of seven women that kept disintegrating till they were in a single file at the 30K point.
While the chasers would slow down in the second half of the race, Yehualaw’s time splits were consistently around 16:20 per five kilometers. In a show of great dominance, she crossed the finish line 8 minutes and 52 seconds ahead of her next competitor.
Two fellow Ethiopians followed her. Fikrte Wereta who had broken away from the rest of the chasers at the 30k managed to maintain her second position through to the finish line where she crossed in 2:26:15. Bone Cheluke came in to finish 3rd in 2:26:23.
There was an interesting battle up to the finish line in the men’s race where four runners went under the previous course record.
Cyprian Kotut ran 2:04:47, edging out Uganda’s Stephen Kissa by a second to win the men’s race and break the old course record by 43 seconds. Kotut’s previous personal best time was 2:07:11, which he ran in 2016 at the Paris Marathon.
Despite finishing second, Kissa’s time of 2:04:48 was a new national record for Uganda and an amazing marathon debut time as well.
Workineh Tadesse of Ethiopia came third in 2:05:07 just two seconds ahead of Uganda’s Victor Kiplangat who also broke the old course record despite finishing outside the podium place.
