Ethiopian Athletes Dominate Casablanca Marathon

Casablanca, Morocco – An Ethiopian athletics team led by Shumi Gerbaba (men) and Yeshimebet Tadesse (women) dominated the Casablanca International Grand Marathon here on Sunday.

In the men’s category, debutant Shumi  set a new course record of 2:09:03 to win the race. He was followed by Rachid Kisri of Morocco (2:09.100 and Girma Beyene of Ethiopia (2:09.52) in second and third places respectively.

In the women’s race, Yeshimebet Tadesse also set a new course record in finishing the race in 2:31:10, followed by her fellow compatriot Zahara Kedir (2:36:49). Larisa Zyozko (2:37:13) of Russia took third place.

Yeshimebet has a personal best of 2:27:45 from coming seventh in last January’s Dubai marathon, and promised that she would return next year to run a faster time.