A marathon takes a wrong turn
Everyone knows the marathon is one of the toughest events in competitive sport, said John Phillips in The Daily Telegraph. But it’s meant to be a test of endurance, not navigation; following the route should be the easy part. Occasionally, however, a “gaffe” takes runners off course – which is just what happened on Sunday in the Venice Marathon. With ten miles to go, the favourites to win the race – a quartet of runners from Kenya and Ethiopia – were comfortably in the lead, but they were led astray by the motorcycle scout, who misjudged a turn and took them down a cycling path.
When they found themselves in the path of traffic, they realised they had made a mistake and ran back to join the route – but they still lost “two minutes of precious time”, giving the advantage to Eyob Gebrehiwet, a 25-year-old “unknown”. He had previously been a full minute behind – but, sensing an opportunity, he managed to catch up and sprint to the finishing line, clocking a time of 2hrs 12mins 16secs.
Gebrehiwet is the first Italian to win the race in 22 years, said Mimi Launder in The Independent. Born in Eritrea, he arrived in Italy in 2003 and obtained Italian citizenship two years ago. After trying to become a footballer, Gebrehiwet switched to athletics, joined a running club, and earned money by cleaning swimming pools. Amazingly, he had only competed in one marathon before this, which makes his victory all the more remarkable.