Tesfay claims men’s title, Chepkemoi tops women’s at Mumbai Marathon

New champions emerged in the Tata Mumbai Marathon as unheralded Berhane Tesfay of Eritrea clinched the elite mens title while Kenyas Joyce Chepkemoi Tele won the womens crown on SundayThe 38yearold Tesfay clocked 2 hours 11 minutes and 44 seconds to complete the 42195km distance and win his maiden international full marathon title as thousands of Mumbaikars turned up for the marquee event which is a World Athletics Gold Label Road RaceThe tiny African nation of Eritrea finished 12 as Tesfays compatriot Merhawi Kesete was second in 21150s while Ethiopias Tesfaye Demeke 21156s was thirdTele 29 clocked 22456s to win the elite womens race finishing ahead of Shitaye Eshete 22529s of Bahrain and Medina Deme Armino 22758s of EthiopiaBoth the mens and womens defending champions from Ethiopia Lemi Berhanu and Aberash Minsewo failed to finish on the podium this timeBerhanu who had also won here in 2023 missed a hattrick of titles as he finished sixth on Sunday with a time of 21454sTesfay took the lead around 3km left in the race While Kenyarsquos Philemon Rono fourth and Berhanu were in the frontrunning pack initially they could not push further at the later stagesldquoThe races first half went smoothly and I stayed focused on keeping a steady pace After 25K my strategy shifted to securing the win rather than chasing a specific time This victory means a lot to me and its a testament to the hard work and training that has gone into preparing for this momentrdquo Tesfay said after the raceTesfays earlier best performance in a marathon race was a thirdplace finish at Kosice Peace Marathon in Slovakia in October 2023For Tele it was her second win in as many races She had won in Slovenia at the NLB Ljubljana Marathon in October last year with a time of 22017sI came here only to win the race and was not thinking about any record Chepkemoi saidAmong the Indians Anish Thapa 21723s finished first among men while Nirmaben Thakor 25006s defended her title among womenMan Singh was second among Indian men with a time of 21737s while twotime winner Gopi T who returned to the competition after missing it out last year finished third with 21959s Defending champion Srinu Bugatha 22043s ended at fifthThapa whose best finish in this event was a 14th in 2020 said ldquoMy strategy was to keep my core strong and maintain a steady start despite the humid conditions The real push came after the 30ndash35 km mark and sticking to my plan made all the differencerdquo Among the Indian women Sonika Parmar came second with a time of 25055s while Sonam 25545s was thirdNirmaben who beat Sonika by 49 seconds and finished overall 16th said ldquoThough my performance this year was not as strong as last year which remains my personal best the experience was just as rewardingrdquo ldquoI started at my regular pace and stayed with the group for the first 12km before we began to split After 21km I gradually started overtaking and by the 36km mark I had secured the lead she saidEven when I faced some challenges with my shoes around 38km my determination and faith in God kept me goingrdquo she addedSawan Barwal and Stanzin Dolkar won the half marathon in the menrsquos and womenrsquos categories respectively with the former setting a meet record of 10437With inputs from agencies