Ethiopian duo rule Kolkata roads
RESULTS
London, Dec. 17: Manchester City racked up a 16th consecutive Premier League win as the runaway leaders routed Tottenham 4- 1, while Mesut Ozil fired Arsenal to a 1- 0 success against Newcastle on Saturday.
Ilkay Gundogan opened the scoring at Eastlands before Kevin de Bruyne and Raheem Sterling netted after the interval to ensure City opened up a 14- point lead over second- placed Man United.
Having set the league record for successive wins in their triumph at Swansea, Pep Guardiola’s side now have their manager’s personal bests in their sights.
City’s 16- match winning run in the league equals Guardiola’s second longest streak as a boss — with Barcelona in 2010- 11 — and moves them within three of his career- high 19 successive victories with Bayern Munich in 2013- 14.
With the title race turning World record holder in the 5,000m and 10,000m, Kenesisa Bekele emerged the champion of the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K race on a cool Sunday morning here. The Ethiopian won in 1 hour 13 minutes and 48 seconds, creating a new course record en route to the podium.
Eritrea’s Tsegay Tuemay was second in 1: 14: 29 while Augustino Sulle of Tanzania finished 12 seconds later to take the third spot.
“The course is nice and flat all through. I have been training hard and the result showed. This was my first 25K and it feels good to have won it. It was a tactical race and I paced myself depending on the kind of competition I faced,” the winner said.
Bekele did pace his race brilliantly maintaining a steady run along with the others till the 21km mark, and then gradually moved ahead.
He covered the last four kilometres way ahead of the pack and by the time he reached the finish line, into a lengthy coronation for City, it would be easy for the leaders to take their eye off the ball, but they were always in control against Tottenham, who once again flopped in an away game against top- six opponents.
Gundogan’s header put City in front in the 14th minute. De Bruyne made it two in the 70th.
Gabriel Jesus squandered a chance to make it three when he missed a penalty.
But Sterling scored with an 80th minute tap- in and then punished a mistake by Tottenham’s Eric Dier to claim his 15th goal of the season. Christian Eriksen’s stoppage- time goal for Tottenham couldn’t take the gloss off another City masterclass.
At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea beat Southampton 10 to stay 14 points behind City and draw level on points with United.
Arsenal won for the his closest competitor was nowhere in sight.
“The weather was good though a little smokey in certain parts. But it was not difficult to manage. I had a great race and would like to come back here next year. Kolkata has first time in four league games, beating Newcastle 1- 0, thanks to Mesut Ozil’s 23rd minute strike.
West Ham piled pressure on Stoke boss Mark Hughes with a 3- 0 win in a match delayed by an hour due to a power outage at the bet365 Stadium.
Brighton drew 0- 0 with Burnley. Huddersfield thrashed Watford 4- 1. Crystal Palace claimed their maiden away win of the season as 10man Leicester were beaten 03 at the King Power Stadium.
UNITED BEAT WEST BROM
Goals from Romelu Lukaku and Jesse Lingard gave Manchester United a 2- 1 win over West Bromwich Albion on Sunday.
Lukaku put United ahead at the Hawthorns and Lingard doubled the lead before half- time. Gareth Barry netted a second- half goal for the hosts. been very warm and hospitable,” Bekele said.
Bekele, who ran his maiden race in the country, though rued the absence of a pacemaker.
“In a race like this you need a pacemaker, which sets you up for a fast finish. West Brom Manchester United Arsenal Newcastle Chelsea Southampton
Brighton Burnley
Watford Huddersfield Stoke West Ham Manchester City Tottenham Hotspur I was pushing myself, but that was not enough. I would have pushed my timing by 90 seconds at least if I had a pacemaker,” he said.
In the elite women’s group, the first place was taken by Ethiopia’s Degitu 1 2 1 0 1 0
0 0
1 4 0 3 4 1 Azimeraw with a timing of 1.26.01, followed by Kenya’s Helah Kiprop ( 1.26.04) and Failuna Matanga ( 1.26.11) of Tanzania in a close- finish.
For Kiprop, it was mission accomplished who was participating in the third race in the country and was determined to return with a medal.
SABLE, SURYA TAKE
TOP HONOURS
In the elite national section, winner Avinash Sable set a course record of 1.15.17, breaking the previous one created by G. Lakshmanan, who took the third spot with 1.17.13 — better than his mark last year.
Kalidas Hirave was second with 1.16.18, bettering last year’s record of 1.17.23.
In the Indian women’s, L. Surya won in 1.26.53 beating Sudha Singh’s course record of 1.27.31 . Manju Yadav was second at 1.32.51 ahead of local girl Jhuma Khatun ( 1.32.58). All three were from Railways.
The 22- year- old Sable came fourth while Surya was fifth overall.