Xiamen Marathon: Mare Dibaba defends title, sets new course record

Ethiopia’s Mare Dibaba won the Xiamen Marathon for the second year in succession, taking more than one-and-a-half minutes off the course record she set last year at the IAAF Gold Label Road Race, winning in 2:19:52 on Saturday (3).

For the first time since the inaugural Xiamen Marathon in 2003, both course records were broken as Kenya’s Moses Mosop set a Chinese all-comers’ record of 2:06:19 to win the men’s race.

When Dibaba won in Xiamen last year, she took 61 seconds off the course record and crossed the line five minutes ahead of her nearest rival.

This time, her victory was even more emphatic.

By equalling her PB of 2:19:52, she covered the course one minute and 45 seconds quicker than she did last year, finishing almost eight minutes ahead of Meseret Legesse, who once again finished second to Dibaba for the second year running.

Dibaba built up a significant lead in the early stages of the race and maintained it all the way to the finish.

Read more at: IAAF.org