23rd DUBAI MARATHON KICKS OFF OLYMPIC YEAR 2024
Last Year’s Top Two Women Face Off Again on Sunday
Dubai (UAE): Staged under the auspices of the Dubai Sports Council, the 23rd Dubai Marathon gets underway on Sunday (January 7), with a host of distance runners set to take advantage of the early opportunity to qualify for the Paris Olympics in the summer.
“The Dubai Marathon is an important part of the city’s sporting calendar, more so now that it is the first major event of 2024,” said His Excellency Saeed Hareb, Secretary General of the Dubai Sports Council. “The race has been very successful since the first event in 1998, but we always strive to be better. It is good to see so many wonderful elite athletes with us today, and we wish them all well for the race on Sunday.”
Less than ten months after battling it out for the 2023 Dubai Marathon title, Ethiopian duo Dera Dida and Ruti Aga will go head-to-head once again, only this time on the fast and flat roads around Jumeirah and the Burj Al Arab.
Eleven months ago, it was Dida – wife of former Dubai Marathon winner and ex-World Champion Tamirat Tola – who stormed through with two kilometers remaining to take the women’s event in 2:21:11 just 13 seconds ahead of compatriot Aga in second.
This week, the pair will be reunited again – and while Dida returns as reigning champion, it is Aga who is the fastest woman in the field with a personal best of 2:18:09, which she set when winning in Dongying China a few months ago.
For Aga, it’s a third visit to the Dubai Marathon after competing in both 2017 and 2023. Her record in major marathons is impressive, having won in Tokyo (2019), finished second in Berlin twice (2017 and 2018), and claimed third in the 2019 New York Marathon.
Like Aga, Dida also lowered her marathon PB in 2023 to 2:19:24 while finishing sixth in Berlin but it will be 29-year-old Aga who starts as favorite when the Middle East’s oldest international marathon gets underway on Umm Suqeim Road.
In the men’s field, Ethiopians Workineh Tadese Mandefro and Kebede Tulu Wami lead the way, with the former’s personal best of 2:05:07 coming in Hamburg 2022. Tulu is only a few seconds slower, his best of 2.05.19 earned him second place in Seville nine…
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