Eritrean Beraki Beyene and Kenyan Emily Perpetua Chepkorir won the eighth edition of the Santiago de Chile Marathon, an IAAF Bronze Label Road Race that took place in the Chilean capital on Sunday (6). Beyene’s time was 2:11:50, while Chepkorir’s was 2:35:16.The morning was cold at 8°C and foggy, but 25,000 enthusiastic runners made the day colourful at the start of the race near the ‘Palacio de Gobierno’ (Government’s Palace) in the Chilean capital.Only 4000 runners took part in the marathon. France’s Patrick Tambwé, who had the fastest time of all participants with 2:07:30, withdrew from the race at 12km.The leading group of the men’s race, composed by Beyene, and Kenyans Simon Kariuki, Julius Keter and Julius Karing, crossed the 10km mark in 32:16. They all remained together at the 15km mark (47:10), 25km (1:19:12) and 35km (1:51:01).The race was decided in the final 5km, when the 34-year-old Beyene, eleventh at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, was able to pull away from the rest of the Africans, winning in 2:11:50. The Eritrean missed the course record by only six seconds.Kariuki was second with 2:12:11, while Karinga was third in 2:13:38. Keter, who won in Santiago in 2011 and 2013, was fifth with 2:15:52, while the best South American (and area champion) was Chilean Roberto Echeverría – sixth with 2:16:58.The women’s race also presented at tight competition. Chepkorir was always in the leading group along with Ethiopian Alene Shewarge, fellow Kenyan Lucy Karimi and Chilean Erika Olivera. Their splits were 38:17 at 10km, 56:04 at 15km, 1:33:12 at 25km and 2:10:22 at 35km.The 29-year-old Chepkorir prevailed in the final stages, crossing the line in 2:35:16, leaving Shewarge in second place (2:35:30) and Karimi in third (2:35:39). Olivera was fourth and South American champion with 2:36:08.Chile’s Carlos Diaz (28:59) and Margarita Masias (34:29) won the 10km race, while Chile’s Leslie Encina (1:05:59) and Brazil’s Heide Silva (1:16:09) took the victory at the half marathon.Eduardo Biscayart for the IAAF

Eritrean Beraki Beyene and Kenyan Emily Perpetua Chepkorir won the eighth edition of the Santiago de Chile Marathon, an IAAF Bronze Label Road Race that took place in the Chilean capital on Sunday (6). Beyene’s time was 2:11:50, while Chepkorir’s was 2:35:16.

Beyene and Chepkorir win Santiago de Chile Marathon

South Africa’s Stephen Mokoka and Ethiopia’s Aberu Kebede gave the course records a scare at the 14th edition of the Shanghai International Marathon but ultimately both marks, set 12 months ago, remained unbeaten at the IAAF Gold Label Road Race on Sunday (1).Last year, the women’s race was a fast one with Ethiopia’s Faysa Tadesse winning in 2:23:07 and two other women under 2:25. Even if this year’s race didn’t quite have the same times to its credit, it was nevertheless a top quality affair.Ethiopia’s 24-year-old Aberu Kebede, who won the 2012 Berlin Marathon in a 2:20:30 personal best and had another great 2:20:33 performance in Dubai 2012, fulfilled her role as favourite and bounced back from a disappointing outing at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow, where she finished only in 13th, by winning in season’s best of 2:23:27 and she missed her compatriot’s course record by only by 21 seconds.Two more Ethiopians followed Kebede home, albeit at a distance, with 21-year-old Merima Mohammed Hasen finishing her third Marathon of the season in 2:26:30 for second place, following two faster races in Paris (2:23:14) and a victorious Houston Marathon outing (2:23:37) in the first half of this year.Ashu Kasim, second behind Tadese in 2012, completed the clean sweep for Ethiopia in 2013 when she finished third in a 2:26:34 season’s best.Mokoka gets first Marathon winIn the men’s race, there were a number of athletes with considerably faster personal bests than Mokoka, but most of them were several years ago. The South African also had the experience of finishing in a high position at the two immediate previous Marathons in Shanghai, finishing second in 2011 in 2:10:29 and fourth in 2:09:43 last year, as well as having posted some good results on the roads over shorter distances in recent months.The 28-year-old, running his first Marathon of 2013, won his first race over the classic distance in 2:09:30, finishing just 29 seconds short of the 2:09:01 course record set by Kenya’s Sylvester Teimet last year. In a close race, where the first six athletes dipped under 2:10, Eritrea’s Beraki Beyene was the best in a thrilling finish over the final few hundred metres where the five athletes in places two to six came home in the space of 10 seconds. Bayene, now 33, clocked 2:09:46 for a season’s best and was just 47 seconds outside his best, which was set at another Chinese event, the Hengshui Lake International Marathon, in September last year.Kenya’s Stephen Chemlany was third in 2:09:48, following a 2:07:44 personal best in Berlin two months ago, his third time under 2:10 this season. Last year’s runner-up, Ethiopia’s Teferi Kebede, was this year fourth in a 2:09:52 season’s best while the Kenyan pair of Samuel Ndungu and Michael Chege were fifth and sixth in 2:09:53 and 2:09:56 respectively.The six runners were on their own from 32km before Mokoka broke away in the last two kilometres.More than 35,000 people took to the streets of Shanghai on Sunday morning, 8000 in the Marathon, 10,000 in the Half Marathon, 5000 in a 10km run and approximately 12,000 people in a Mini Marathon. Mirko Jalava for the IAAF

South Africa’s Stephen Mokoka and Ethiopia’s Aberu Kebede gave the course records a scare at the 14th edition of the Shanghai International Marathon but ultimately both marks, set 12 months ago, remained unbeaten at the IAAF Gold Label Road Race on Sunday (1).

Beyene and Chepkorir win Santiago de Chile Marathon

Mokoka and Kebede close to course records in Shanghai