LONDON, ENGLAND, October 02 — As she picked herself up off the pavement some 32 kilometers into the London Marathon it was quite apparent that Yalemzerf Yehualaw’s week was not going particularly well. The previous Sunday, she had lost her National Record to Tigist Assefa, then she hit a speed bump, literally, and went crashing to the unforgiving roadway, incurring bruised knees and hip.
Faced with this double whammy the 23-year-old Ethiopian handled the situation with aplomb, picking herself up, then really picking up the pace over the final 5K, for a break-away 2:17:26 win. She also gained the distinction of being the youngest women to ever win London.
Kenya’s defending champion Joyciline Jepkosgei came home 2nd in 2:18:07, and Ethiopian Alemu Megertu finished 3rd in 2:18:32.
“I feel very happy today,” Yehualaw enthused. “It’s so nice to win the London Marathon. I want to say thank you so much to all the people in London who supported me. I am so happy to win, but I’m surprised, because it’s such a great competition.”
Not so surprising as Yehualaw is no stranger to fast running and even early in her career she has run a 29:14 road 10K WR, 4 sub-65:00 half-marathons — including a 63:51 PR — and a 2:17:23 women’s debut record last April in Hamburg, in her first foray over 42km.
The fast running here started right from the gun as 8 racers followed the lead of a pacer blitzing the downhill opening 5K in 16:01, a 2:15:10 pace. The tempo slowed, but stayed hot as they passed 10K in 32:18, netting a 16:17 split and 2:16:17 pace.
The targeted pace of Mary Keitany’s 2:17:01 women-only WR, set here in ’17, slipped away with slowing 5K segments of 16:33 (15K in 48:51) and 16:34 to cross 20K in 65:25 (2:18:01 pace).
Some sense of urgency returned when the tempo quickened as the 7-woman pack scurried across the Tower Bridge to reach halfway in 68:46. The pace stayed hot through a 16:04 increment, splitting 1:21:29 at 25K, as the lone pacer retired after a job well done putting a talented pack on a projected 2:17:32 finish.
Ethiopian Sutume Kebede was more than ready to step into the pacer void as she relentlessly tugged at the lead and ripped through a 16:23 5K, crossing 30K in 1:37:52 — 2:17:39 pace. It was smooth sailing until Yehualaw crashed in kilo 32.
Despite the leaders’ running much of the race tightly packed and seeming to have…
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