Ethiopia's Ruti Aga (© Getty Images)
Ethiopia’s Ruti Aga and Dawit Wolde return to the C&D Xiamen Marathon to defend their titles at the first World Athletics Platinum Label road race of the year on Sunday (11).
Aga and Wolde set respective course records of 2:18:46 and 2:06:06 to win last year. While Wolde tops the men’s entry list again this year with his PB of 2:03:48 from Valencia in 2023, Aga will clash with her compatriot Megertu Alemu, who leads the women’s entries with her career best of 2:16:34 from London in 2024.
Aga’s PB of 2:18:09, set in Dongying in 2023, stood as the Chinese all-comers' record until it was broken by Brigid Kosgei in Shanghai in November. Aga’s performance remains the second-fastest women’s run ever achieved in China and her course record in Xiamen last year was the fourth sub-2:19 performance of her career so far.
The 31-year-old won the Tokyo Marathon in 2:20:40 in 2019 and her CV features four other major marathon podium places, including a 2:18:34 runner-up finish in the 2018 Berlin Marathon. She followed her Xiamen Marathon win last year with another marathon victory in Hangzhou in November.
Alemu has dipped under 2:19 seven times so far, her CV topped by that 2:16:34 to finish fourth in London in 2024. She won the Valencia Marathon in 2:16:49 later that year and was runner-up in Chicago in October in 2:17:18.
They will be joined by Ethiopia’s Meseret Abebayehu and Fikrte Wereta, and Kenya’s Helah Jelagat Kiprop. Abebayehu ran her PB of 2:19:50 in Amsterdam in 2023, the same year she won the Xiamen Marathon in 2:24:42, but she was 16th on her return last year. Wereta placed third in Xiamen last year, clocking 2:23:15, and she ran her PB of 2:21:32 to win the Seoul Marathon in 2024. Kiprop, the 2015 world silver medallist, most recently ran 2:26:40 in Taiyuan in September. Her PB of 2:21:27 was set in 2016.
Kenya’s Mercy Kwambai also returns following her fourth-place finish in Xiamen in a PB of 2:23:58 last year.
In the men’s race, Wolde will take on his compatriots and fellow sub-2:05 runners Hailemaryam Kiros and Asefa Mengstu.
Wolde ran his PB of 2:03:48 when finishing third in Valencia in 2023 and most recently placed second in Shanghai in 2:06:27 in November.
Kiros won the Sydney Marathon in a course record of 2:06:06 in August and set his PB of 2:04:35 when finishing fifth in the Berlin Marathon in 2024.
Mengstu, the 2019 Chicago Marathon third-place finisher, ran his PB of 2:04:06 in Dubai in 2018 and has focused on Chinese marathons over the past couple of years, his most recent performance being a 2:12:23 run in Harbin in August.
Ethiopia’s 21-year-old Addisu Gobena, who is the nephew of defending women’s race champion Aga, finished just 10 seconds behind Kiros to claim the runner-up spot in Sydney last year. The pair will battle again as Gobena returns to marathon action looking to build on his PB of 2:05:01 set when winning in Dubai on his marathon debut as a 19-year-old in 2024.
They will be joined by Kenya’s Enock Onchari, who ran 2:05:20 in Barcelona last year, and Eritrea’s Ablelom Maryo, who finished fifth in Xiamen last year in 2:07:05.
Elite fields
Women
Megertu Alemu (ETH) 2:16:34
Ruti Aga (ETH) 2:18:09
Meseret Abebayehu (ETH) 2:19:50
Helah Jelagat Kiprop (KEN) 2:21:27
Fikrte Wereta (ETH) 2:21:32
Stacey Chepkemboi Ndiwa (KEN) 2:23:42
Mercy Kwambai (KEN) 2:23:58
Bai Li (CHN) 2:26:33
Xu Bingjie (CHN) 2:27:11
Lu Ying (CHN) 2:27:30
Men
Dawit Wolde (ETH) 2:03:48
Asefa Mengstu (ETH) 2:04:06
Hailemaryam Kiros (ETH) 2:04:35
Addisu Gobena (ETH) 2:05:01
Enock Onchari (KEN) 2:05:20
Ablelom Maryo (ERI) 2:07:05
Boaz Kipkemei (KEN) 2:07:06
Yang Shaohui (CHN) 2:07:09
