OLJIRA SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDS CARRERA DE LA MUJER TITLE IN BOGOTA

The 2015 edition of the Carrera de la Mujer, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race held over 10km in Bogota, proved to be almost a repeat of the year before, with Ethiopia’s Belaynesh Oljira powering away from Kenya’s Veronica Nyaruai in the final 1200m of the race.

Oljira’s winning time of 33:57 was just five seconds slower than the course record she established last year. But if the result of the race was similar, the development of it was not.

Under cloudy skies and with temperatures a near ideal 15C, no one wanted to lead from the gun. So a group of 13, consisting of all the foreign entrants and two of Colombia’s best runners, meandered through the first two kilometres in 7:00, far slower than last year.

But shortly after the 2km mark, Nyaruai – winner of this race in 2012 when it was held over 12km – took the initiative and considerably upped the tempo. By the 3km mark, there were just three runners together at the front – Nyaruai pushing, with defending champion Oljira tucked in behind along with her fellow Ethiopian Buze Diriba.

Read more at: IAAF.org