Simbu, Kitur shine bright in Mumbai sun

The sudden chill the city experienced over the past week only served to tease the runners of the Mumbai Marathon who trained in ideal conditions.

Come race day, no such solace was afforded as temperatures and humidity rose to that usually expected of Mumbai, leaving the elite athletes reeling in the hot sun as they pushed their bodies to the limit in an effort to re-set course records.

Effects of the inclement weather showed clearly on the field of athletes as many took ill, some even before they were able to finish the race.

Tanzania’s Alphonce Simbu basked in glory as the winner of the 14th Mumbai Marathon. However, it was his closest rival of the day Joshua Kipkorir of Kenya who felt the most hard done by the rising temperatures.

Kipkorir was in the lead going into the last kilometre of the race, but under a bout of illness, threw up on track causing him to slow down and lose out on some precious seconds. Simbu took the opportunity to sprint past Kipkorir and claim the win. A 5th place finisher at the Rio Olympic Games, Simbu began his tryst with full marathons in 2015 and registered his first marathon victory on Sunday in his maiden participation in Mumbai.

He clocked 2:09.32 secs, almost an entire minute behind the course record of 2:08.35 set by Gideon Kipketer in 2016.

While the course record was out of reach, the Tanzanian’s win has given the Mumbai Marathon a victor from a new nationality, temporarily breaking the dominance by Kenyans and Ethiopians.

Kenya’s Bornes Kitur took the plaudits as the winner of the women’s field with a time of 2:29.02, nearly five minutes shy of Valentine Kipketer’s course record of 2:24.33 set in 2013.

However, Kitur did manage to better her previous personal best of 2:32.00 which she set in finishing second in Mumbai last year.

Simbu and Kitur will pocket $42,000 each as winners in the men’s and women’s categories of the race respectively.

There was a Kenyan secondthird place finish in the men’s category as Kipkorir (2:09.50) and Eliud Barngetuny (2:10.39) claimed the podium spots while Ethiopians did the same in the women’s category with Chaltu Tafa (2:33.03) and Tigist Girma (2:33.19) taking second and third respectively. Both second-placed finishers will receive $23,000 while the third-placed runners will get $17,000 in prize money.

Kitur had little competition in claiming her first Mumbai Marathon as she ran solo for the last 12 kilometres. In winning the women’s category, Kitur claimed her third marathon win in a row after Cologne, Germany and Eldoret, Kenya in 2016.