Debutante Save surprises at the Valencia Marathon, and Alema is far from the women’s record | Sport

Kenyan athlete Sabastian Save pulled off a surprise this Sunday and was crowned the winner of the 44th Trinidad Alfonso Valencia Marathon in his debut at the distance and did so with a provisional time of 2:02:06, the best world record for 2024. ten seconds below the figure recorded by Benson Kipruto in Tokyo at the beginning of the year.

The 28-year-old, who still specializes in the half marathon, a distance where he has achieved great victories, won the race to honor the victims of Dana, which devastated parts of Valencia a month ago.

After winner Keneisa Bekele fell first ahead of Sisay Lemma, the 2023 winner with the fourth-best time in marathon history, the race entered its final phase.

Daniel Matejko, having retired from the race in his first two marathons, launched an attack that stretched his already shriveled head, but he did not have the strength to sustain it, and soon after, Save overtook him and headed to his final victory, ahead of the Ethiopian Deresa Geletu. winner in Seville, setting an excellent mark of 2:02:38.

Save was the first to cross the finish line, dominated by an arch with the motto “Forsa, Valencia”, another example of how this edition of the Valencia Marathon was marked by the consequences of damage that lasted just over a month and devastated several regions of Valencia, including three districts of the capital , with a preliminary total of 222 dead, four missing and enormous property damage.

In the women’s category, Ethiopian athlete Megertu Alemu this Sunday fulfilled the forecast and was declared the winner of the Trinidad Alfonso Valencia Marathon with a provisional mark of 2:16:49, fifteen seconds above her personal best. The Ethiopian was the big favorite and crossed the finish line first.

The 8.15 start came after an emotional tribute to the victims of the destruction that devastated several regions of Valencia, in a sequence that was repeated nine times, one for each start, which was given to give smoothness to the 35,000 runners. a message of gratitude was conveyed to the runners and the regional anthem of Valencia was played.

When at the end of the 2023 race businessman Juan Roig, the promoter of the test through the Trinidad Alfonso Foundation, offered a million euros to whoever could set the world record in the test in 2024, he raised hopes that the streets of Valencia would star in the feat.

In principle, the big obstacle was the holding of the Olympic Games in Paris, an obstacle that the organization believed could be overcome, albeit with difficulty. But the death in February in a traffic accident of Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum, the current world record holder with a mark of 2:00:35, achieved in 2023 in Chicago (USA), almost completely ended this hope in the men’s category.

Save was nowhere near that mark, and was also nearly thirty seconds off the test record Lemma had set a year ago of 2:01:48. There was no Spanish record either, as first Spaniard Ibrahim Chakir crossed the finish line with a provisional time of 2:07:31, almost two minutes ahead of Tariku Novales’ mark in the same event in 2023.

However, in the women’s category, the dream of a record remained alive even after the competition in Paris. However, just over a month ago, a stratospheric performance in Chicago (USA) by Kenyan Ruth Chepngetich, who set a new world record by stopping the clock at 2:09:56, made the feat almost impossible, and she passed. to a cascade of resignations. Alemu was very far away, almost seven minutes, from this mark, he also crossed the finish line two minutes after 2:14:57, which was the Valencia competition record and fifteen seconds above his personal best.