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Ethiopia's Hayle Lemi, Aberash Minsewo win Mumbai Marathon titles
Srini Bugatha, India's best male runner, was eighth overall and Gopi T 10th. Nirmaben Thakor was the top Indian finisher among woman on Sunday
As he entered the home stretch of the 2024 Tata Mumbai Marathon on Sunday, Hayle Lemi's race was between him and his own course record of last year.
Having blazed the tricky Mumbai course in 2:07:32 in 2023, the Ethiopian was seconds away from it in the final 200m this time. Lemi eventually took 18 seconds more than the course record, but 2:07:50 was good enough to land him a second straight win in this World Athletics Gold Label Road Race.
The 29-year-old finished over a minute ahead of compatriot Haymanot Alew (2:09:03) while Mitku Tafa (2:09:58) completed the podium sweep for Ethiopia among the elite men that saw two Indians — Srinu Bugatha (8th, 2:17:29) and Olympian Gopi T (10th, 2:18:37) — finish in the top 10.
And just like last year that had the women's champion competing in her first marathon, Aberash Minsewo of Ethiopia led the women's pack on her marathon debut with a timing of 2:26:06.
It's a course and a title not many have been able to defend. The last male to win back-to-back here was Kenya's John Kelai in 2007 and 2008. Lemi, the 2016 Boston Marathon winner who has a personal best of 2:04:33 (Dubai, 2016), had come into this race after clocking 2:05:48 in Amsterdam last October followed by three months of preparation.
"It's a great feeling to win in Mumbai again," said Lemi, speaking via a translator. “Last year, I felt amazing. This year was a bit tough. In the last few kilometres, the weather got hot and it became challenging.”
After a sedate start, the leading men's pack of six runners gradually upped the pace. Around the 25km mark, the bunch was a minute quicker than at the same stage last year, raising hopes of another course record. At the 30km mark where the eventual top three men were unseparated in their timing (1:31:05), Lemi pulled away to establish a lead that got too wide to be bridged.
However, the rising temperature as the morning progressed, along with a slightly uphill stretch just before the final stretch, pegged back Lemi’s timings and hopes of lowering his mark. Not having a challenger to push him also did not help.
“Until 39km, someone needed to be with me. If that had happened, I feel it’s possible to run even 2:06 here,” Lemi said.
The final leg also troubled debutant Minsewo — her long-distance races were restricted to 5000m, 10km and half marathons last year — who was 45 seconds quicker than second-placed Muluhabt Tsega of Ethiopia (2:26:51), who shared the lead for most part. Their compatriot Medhin Bejene was third (2:27:34). A lot of elite women runners struggled after the finish line, one even having to be stretchered off.
"After 40km, I struggled a little bit," Minsewa, 22, said. “I'm surprised that I won. This was my first marathon, so everyone was telling me about how to run and finish. I was just thinking about that before the race.”
Bugatha fastest Indian, Shyamali overcomes setback
Like in the 2020 edition, Srinu Bugatha was the fastest among Indians as he took home a bonus of ₹5 lakh. This was the Armyman's first marathon since competing in Mumbai last year, where he finished 15th and after which a hamstring injury hampered his season. Not included in the 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG) squad by the Athletics Federation of India despite meeting the qualification standards, Bugatha said the last couple of years have been very demotivating for him.
"I did not know what I was running for. It's been a stressful period after the CWG exclusion and injury last year. But this show will get my confidence back and I will now work towards breaking the national record (2:12:00, Shivnath Singh, 1978)," he said.
Gopi, who took part in the 2016 Rio Games, was hoping to get close to that 2:12 mark here, but clocked 2:18:37. He said he was affected by cramp after the 27km mark.
Among the Indian women, Gujarat’s Nirmaben Thakor, who moved her training base to Nashik three years ago, clocked 2:47:11 to be the best, way ahead of Reshma Kevate (3:03:34) and Shyamali Singh (3:04:35).
West Bengal’s Shyamali — she clocked 2:58:44 in 2020 — had undergone surgery to remove a brain tumour in December 2020. She got back gradually to running and training only in November 2021. After running a few shorter distance races in 2022, she ran in Mumbai last year but could not finish.
“This is my first medal after the surgery, and the best one I have ever won,” said Shyamali.
