Ennaji El Idrissi dominates the field at Turin Marathon – Athletics news
Casablanca Marathon winner, Ennaji El Idrissi stunned athletics’ fans when he finished the meet in style over a world-class field of runners with a brilliant time of 2 hours, 8 minutes and 13 seconds at the 25th anniversary edition of the Turin
Marathon, on November 13, in Turin, Italy.
The race commenced from the Cenral Castle Square in the heart of Turin, in cool but ideal sunny conditions for running. Ukrainian athlete, Vasyl Matvichuk and Kenyan runner, David Tarus were the pace makers from the start and went through the 10 km mark
in 30 minutes and 30 seconds, respectively. Consistent with the pace, the 15 km mark was crossed in just 45 minutes and 50 seconds, respectively.
A ten-man group which featured David Mandago, Peter Kurui, William Chebor, Robert Ndiwa, Antony Wairuri and El Idrissi reached the half-way mark in a time of 1 hour, 4 minutes and 58 seconds.
The leading group had a decent gap of 1 minutes and 12 seconds over the Italian runner group which was led by twice national champion, Migidio Bourifa, with a 50-second gap over Giovanni Gualdi, Francesco Bona and Denis Curzi.
At the 21 km mark in 1 hour, 4 minutes and 58 seconds, Matvichuk dropped out from the lead pack. Tarus urged to take the charge and set the pace trend and was seen ahead of Mandago, Kirui, Wairuri, El Idrissi and Megersa until the 25 km mark.
El Idrissi, Chebor and Megersa struggled and pushed away from the rest of the field at the 36 km mark. El Idrissi unleashed the stride at the 40 km mark to leave Chebor and Megersa behind for a staggering victory.
The second spot in the men’s category was won by William Chebor in a time of 2 hours, 8 minutes and 21 seconds, with just a narrow difference with the winner. The third spot was attained by Bacha Megersa, who finished the distance in 2 hours, 8 minutes and
55 seconds.
After winning the race, Idrissi said, “I decided to focus on Marathon running following in the footsteps of Khalid Khannouchi because I was inspired by his story. I fell in love with Marathon when I watched Stefano Baldini winning the Olympic Marathon in
Athens in 2004. I will forward my request to become Italian citizen because I am dreaming to win an international medal for Italy.”
With a well-attained win at the distance, Idrissi has surely engraved his name in the list of elite competitors and if he continues with same momentum, there are bright chances for him to put up better performances in the near future.
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