The weather this year was more favourable for the 31st Istanbul Eurasia Marathon which was held on 18 October 2009. The men’s race was won by defending champion  Kasime Adilo Roba, 30, and in the women’s division marathon debutant Busenesh Urgesa, 20, claimed victory. Both runners are from Ethiopia and their respective times were 2:12:14 and 2:32:45.

Light rain in the morning stopped half an hour after the start of the marathon and 15 km race which was run in a temperature of 19C.

The Intercontinental Istanbul Eurasia Marathon is an IAAF Silver Label Road Race.

MEN

From the starting gun Kenya’s Daniel Nderitu Gatheru took charge of a large pack of two dozen runners and led the race for most of the distance a competition which turned into a Kenya vs. Ethiopia contest.

Defending champion, Roba did not hurry to take the lead. By the tenth kilometre mark the leading group had thinned to 17 runners led by Gatheru, who passed the mark at 31.21. Five metres behind him Kenya’s Michael Njoroge Kimani followed, then there was a gap of 5 metres or so to a pack of nine runners which included Roba. Six more runners one of which was Faisal Bader Shebto, 25, a Qatar athlete of Kenyan origin, were another 5 metres behind them.

Gatheru passed 15km in 47:16 and 20km in 1:02:42, and 25km in 1:18:51. At the halfway point Kimani joined him and they passed the marker in 1:05.53. The main pack continued to follow closely with Shebto closing up.

At 30km (1:34:25) Roba, Kenyan Jafred Chirchir and Ethiopian Wondwosen Feysa Kebede pulled up with Gatheru, closely followed by Kimany, Shebto and 7 more athletes.

At 35km (1:50:09) Gatheru fell out of the hunt for victory and Roba, Shebto and Kenya’s Dennis Musembi Ndiso took up the lead.

During the next 5km Roba maintained the pace and came to the 40km mark in 2:05:22, leaving Shebto some 100 meters behind, and continued building his lead finishing a  fine solo victor in 2:12:14, some 58 seconds slower than his win in 2008.

The runner-up Shebto crossed in 2:12:54, while Kenyan Joseph Kahugu, 38 (PB 2:07:59 in Chicago 1998) emerged to take third position in 2:13:32, leaving Ndiso in fourth place – 2:13:51.

WOMEN

The women’s race followed the same scenario as the men’s contest. Ethiopia’s Ashu Kasim, 25, who debuted in the 2009 Paris Marathon where she finished 4th in 2:25:49 PB, took the lead and kept it till 38km.

She passed 5km in 17:38 and 10km in 35:15, closely followed by Turkey’s Methap Syzmaz, Kenya’s Margaret Atodonyang, and four Ethiopian runners - Almaz Alemu, Wayinshet Abede Hailu, and marathon debutant, 20-year-old Bizunesh Urgesa.

By the halfway point (1:13:55) the leading group had thinned to three runners. Kasim was followed by Atodonyang and Urgesa some 12 and 15 meters behind. They kept going in the same order through the 30km mark which Kasim passed in 1:47:45.

By 38km Urgesa had narrowed the gap and took the lead from a tiring Kasim, and she was not headed again finishing unchallenged in 2:32:45 for her first marathon result.

Kasim crossed in 2:34:54. Russian Svetlana Semova, winner of 2004 edition of Istanbul marathon, unexpectedly emerged from seventh position at the 30km mark to become the third place finisher in 2:37:04. Atodonyang came 4th in 2:38:25. 

Yelena Kurdyumova and Sergey Porada