Ethiopians owned the road in the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon in Dubai, Fri., Jan. 23, as unheralded Lemi Berhanu, only 21 years old, was the unexpected winner of the men’s race, with Ethiopians taking the top 12 places, and Aselefech Mergia was the women’s winner by a mere second after a stirring stretch duel with Kenya’s Gladys Cherono.

In winning the men’s race in 2:05:28, Berhanu posted the leading time of the young year and improved on his previous best by more than five minutes. He had won his marathon debut in Zurich last year in 2:10:40. So he’s now undefeated in the two marathons he’s run and his Dubai victory earned him $200,000, which means his next run will be to the bank.

Aselefech Mergia, who had taken an extensive break from competition after having a baby, registered a wonderful comeback with her thrilling victory in Dubai. For the 2011 and 2012 Dubai champion, it was her first marathon since her disappointing 42^nd place  at the 2012 London Olympics. In winning at Dubai in 2:20:02, she was only 31 seconds off her course record set in 2011. She, too, received $200,000 for her win.

While the young Berhanu had no idea what he would do with the money he won (“I never thought about the money. I really don’t know what I will do with it.”), Mergia had very specific plans what she would do with her winnings (“We used the prize money from my first two wins in Dubai to begin building a hotel back home, now we’ll be able to complete the job.”).

Going into this year’s Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon, a lot of attention had been focused on Kenenisa Bekele, Ethiopia’s great Olympic track champion, holder of the world records for the 5000 and 10,000 meters, and now a committed marathoner. But on a day when so many Ethiopians excelled on the flat, fast course in Dubai, he unfortunately would not be one of them.

Thanks to the selected pacemakers in the men’s race, the early splits were fast (14:39 at 5k and 29:22 at 10K), which suggested a sub-2:04 final time.

The pacemakers could not maintain that pace, however, and had all dropped out by the time a lead group of 15 runners reached 25K in 1:13:57.

Over the next five kilometers, five more runners lost contact, among them Kenenisa Bekele, who would drop out just beyond the 30K mark due to hamstring problems in both legs.

It was Ethiopia’s Lelisa Desisa, the Dubai and Boston Marathon champion in 2013 and the runner-up in New York last year, who surged ahead to grab his bottle at the 30K aid station – and then he just kept going, taking five of his countrymen with him: Deribe Robi, Sisay Lemma, Feysa Lelisa, Girmay Birhanu and Lemi Berhanu.

Over the last five kilometers the duel at the front had come down to two men -- the more experienced Desisa and the newcomer Berhanu – and Berhanu was able to drop Desisa with about a kilometer to go.

Berhanu said later, “I would never have thought that I could win this race. It was my dream to do this in Dubai one day, but not this year! With around one kilometer to go, I sensed that I could succeed.”

After the 21-year-old winner crossed the finish line 2:05:28, Lelisa Desisa, 25, was second in 2:05:52, Deribe Robi, 27, third in 2:06:06, Feysa Lelisa, 25, fourth in 2:06:35, Sisay Lemma, 28, fifth in 2:07:06, and Bazu Worku, 25, sixth in 2:07:09.

Talk about depth by one nation in the marathon! In all, 10 Ethiopians broke 2:10 in the race as Andualem Belay, 23, finished 10^th in 2:09:59.

In the women’s race, Ethiopia’s Tigist Tufu broke away shortly after the start and set a sizzling pace as she led a talented chasing group by about a minute at 20K, her 1:05:23 split putting her on target to run 2:18 – if she could maintain her pace.

She could not, and by 34 kilometers she was caught by a five-woman group consisting of  the eventual winner Aselefech Mergia, two more Ethiopians, Aberu Kebede and Shuhre Demissie, and Kenyans Lucy Kabuu and Gladys Cherono, the latter the world half-marathon champion last year.

With just over three kilometers remaining the lead group was down to Mergia and the two Kenyans. This set the stage for the close-as-close-can-be battle over the last kilometer between Mergia, who’s 29, and Cherono, 31, with Mergia winning by the slimmest of margins – 2:20:02 to 2:20:03!

Lucy Kabuu, 30, of Kenya wound up third in 2:20:21, and after that Ethiopians occupied the next four places as Shuhre Demissie, 21, finished fourth in 2:20:59, Aberu Kebede, 26, fifth in 2:21:17, Mulu Seboka, 31, last year’s Dubai champion, sixth in 2:21:53, and Tedelech Bekele, 26, seventh in 2:22:51.

Thus five Ethiopian women ran under 2:23 in the race.

Following her victory, Aselefech Mergia said, “I told myself after having my daughter that I could win a marathon again,” and now she had – with her husband and baby daughter there to see her win. All that plus $200,000 – certainly a lot of reasons for her to be happy after the race!

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