Yalemzerf Yehualaw and Hailemaryam Kiros were victorious over 15km on Wednesday (23) in a race that started in&nbsp;Beke and ended in Sandafa.
The event will be used by Ethiopian Athletics as a form guide when selecting its team for the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020.
African Games Half Marathon champion Yehualaw, like many athletes in this race, hadn&rsquo;t competed for several months because of the pandemic. Before today, her most recent races were back in February and March when she clocked a road 5km PB of 15:27 and ran 1:06:35 to finish fifth at the Ras al Khaimah Half Marathon.
The 21-year-old clearly hasn&rsquo;t lost any form since then, however, and she held off world half marathon champion Netsanet Gudeta to win in 50:15. Gudeta was a close second in 50:18.
Zeineba Yimer, who hadn&rsquo;t raced since clocking 2:19:46 on her marathon debut in Valencia in December last year, finished third in 50:30, nine seconds ahead of Ababel Yeshaneh, who earlier this year set a world half marathon record of 1:04:31.
Hailemaryam Kiros, the African U18 steeplechase silver medallist back in 2013, was a surprise winner of the men&rsquo;s race. He crossed the line in 42:59 to finish four seconds ahead of runner-up Andamlak Belihu, the two-time Delhi Half Marathon winner and World Championships 10,000m fifth-place finisher.
Amedework Walelegn, the 2017 world U20 cross-country silver medallist, finished just a stride behind Belihu and was given the same time for third place. Tokyo Marathon champion Birhanu Legese and 2017 Berlin Marathon runner-up Guye Adola were next to finish, clocking 43:20 and 43:36 respectively.
<h3> Leading results</h3>
Men 1 Hailemaryam Kiros 42:59 2 Andamlak Belihu 43:03 3 Amedework Walelegn 43:03 4 Birhanu Legese 43:20 5 Guye Adola 43:36 6 Leul Gebresilase 44:12
Women 1 Yalemzerf Yehualaw 50:15 2 Netsanet Gudeta 50:18 3 Zeineba Yimer 50:30 4 Ababel Yeshaneh 50:39 5 Sisay Meseret Gola 51:00 6 Medhin Beyene 51:15

Yalemzerf Yehualaw and Hailemaryam Kiros were victorious over 15km on Wednesday (23) in a race that started in Beke and ended in Sandafa.

Yehualaw and Kiros win Ethiopia’s trial race for Gdynia