ATHLETICS NEWS - Asefa Mengstu Negewu came back to the marathon that launched him onto the international stage in 2016 and destroyed a quality field to successfully defend his Sanlam Cape Town Marathon title in almost perfect weather conditions.
Running in a lead pack of six athletes that included Ketema Bekele Negasa, race favourite Laban Mutai, Duncan Maiyo and South Africa’s Xolisa Tyali, Negewu went through 10km in 30:18, some 13 seconds behind pacemaker Henry Kiplagat.
Kiplagat proceeded to pour on the pace and by halfway had extended his lead to 34 seconds over the chasing pack. Kiplagat went through to the half marathon mark in 1:04.29 with the pack clocking 1:05.03
By 30km, the pack was chasing down Kiplagat and had whittled his lead down to nine seconds with Negewu driving the bus. At 35km, Negewu threw down the gauntlet and pulled away from his rivals to cross the line in 2:10.01
“Defending my title was important to me. I am really happy to be able to defend my title as this race put me on the map”, said Negewu. “I was hoping for a faster time, I wanted to break my course record (2:08.42) but there was a bit of wind between 11 and 18 kilometres which slowed us down, and the guys didn’t want to work together. So if things go well I would like to come back next year and try and win the race for the third time and break my course record.”
Second was countryman Ketema Negessa (2:11.06) with Duncan Maiyo of Kenya taking third (2:11.26).
Elroy Gelant in his debut marathon, was the best of the South Africans. Running a conservative race, Gelant stayed off the leaders until the 30km mark before he tried to close the gap. In the end though running in no man’s land for a longer period of time cost him and slowed down in the latter stages of the race. Nevertheless his 2:12.49 was good enough for fifth overall.
