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The Ethiopian had dominated the race but struggled on the final stretch before the stumble saw her miss an opportunity to win.
Kenya’s Dorcas Tuitoek won the Hamburg Marathon on Sunday but it was down to a stroke of good fortune after Ethiopian Tiruye Mesfin stumbled and fell just meters to the finish line.
Leading for a long time, Mesfin struggled in the final section and was forced to finish second at 2:20:18 behind Tuitoek (2:20:09), with Kenya’s Stella Chesang completing the podium after clocking 2:20:23 on her debut.
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The world marathon record holder was not impressed by the inquisitive journalist.
Mesfin took the lead early with a half marathon split time of 69:46. She was, however, not as fast as she had planned.
The 2:17:23 course record was out of reach, but at 35k, Mesfin looked a certain winner. She was around a minute ahead of her rivals. But then disaster struck. The 20-year-old slowed and then stumbled and fell to the ground in the final kilometre.
Behind her, Tuitoek saw an opportunity and found another gear, passing Mesfin around 300 meters before the finish line to claim an unlikely victory.
“I was really surprised to win. I did not see when Tiruye Mesfin fell, I was just fully focused on myself. I still had enough energy,” said 25-year-old Tuitoek, who had a personal best of 2:24:54 before the race. “I knew that I could probably run a 2:20 time. This course is really fast and good for records.”
Kenya’s Bernard Koech won the men’s race with a course record of 2:04:09. The 35-year-old tied his personal best and is now the fourth-fastest runner in the world this year.
Fellow-Kenyans Joshua Belet and Martin Kosgei took second and third with 2:04:33 and 2:06:18 respectively.
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