Ethiopian athletes Hayle Lemi and Anchalem Haymanot won the Mumbai Marathon on Sunday. The duo also set new course records to take home $45,000 winners’ prize and a bonus of $15,000 each.
Tata Mumbai Marathon returned after a break of two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with 55, 212 participants across seven categories of races.
Hayle Lemi, the 2016 Boston Marathon winner, won at 02:07:32, beating the record of defending champion and compatriot Derara Hurisa of 2:08:09 set in 2020. In her first full marathon, Anchalem Haymanot broke the women’s mark of 2:24:33 set in 2013 by clocking 02:24:15 for victory. Both the champions ran through the streets of Mumbai for the first time. Ethiopian’s Rahma Tusa was second at 02:24:22 and Letebrhan Haylay was third at 02:24:52, making all three women in the Ethiopian sweep recording under 02:25 hours.
Olympian Gopi T, the first Indian male to win the Asian Marathon Championship in 2017, made a winning return to competitive action. He clocked 2:16:41 to finish on top of the domestic Elites and 10th overall. Gopi was followed by Man Singh, who was 17 seconds behind, and Kalidas Hirave. India’s Chavi Yadav also registered a spectacular victory on her marathon debut in the Indian race. She won the Indian Elite Women Category by completing the 42-kilometre run in the record time of 2:50:39 seconds.
