First Victory & Personal Best for Gebeyanesh Ayele in Boulogne-Billancourt

Gebeyanesh Ayele of Ethiopia (women) & Morris Munene of Kenya (men) were victorious at the Semi­-Marathon Boulogne-­Billancourt Christian Granger.

As expected the women’s contest was a duel between Ethiopian duo Damaris Areba and Gebeyanesh Ayele.

From the gun, they separated themselves from the rest of the field, with Ayele forging on alone soon thereafter. She gradually pulled away to win her first half marathon contest in 1:10:21, improving her lifetime best by 1:16. Her previous best of 1:11:37 was set two years ago in Boulogne-Billancourt.

Areba finished a distant runner-up in 1:11:59, almost two minutes ahead of Gezmu Zenash, who took third. 

Men’s Race

Munene won the race in 1:02:04 followed by Yitayal Atnafu of Ethiopia and John Loitan of Kenya in second and third places respectively.

“I’m very happy. My strategy was to be hidden in the group and then sprint hard at the end,” said the 21-year-old, who improved his lifetime best to 1:00:35 in Krems, Austria, in September.