Mohamed Temam Wins Beirut Marathon - Another Victory for the Pacemaker
There comes another victory for the pacemakers, this time it was at the Beirut Marathon held yesterday morning in the capital of Lebanon.
Mohamed Temam, the Ethiopian runner though took a slow start as the race began on a hot morning in the Middle East, but Abere Chane, the race favourite could not judge the efforts of his apparently slow rival and Temam swept past him at 40k mark, crossing
the finishing line in mere two hours, sixteen minutes and forty three seconds. With a difference of forty seven seconds, the limping Chane finished the race second. James Macharia from Kenya bagged the third position by making it to the finishing line in two
hours, eighteen minutes and twenty seconds.
Throughout the history of long distance races, the unsung heroes have been eventually surfacing and making their presence felt, however, this had not been the case with the pacemakers. What Temam’s success suggests at the Beirut Marathon is that if the pacemakers
feel good enough, they should just keep going on and there is every chance for them to name the game.
Temam’s was rather an encouraging demonstration for the rest of the pacemakers. Charged up with unending energy, the guy kept on with the pace until he had covered 33 kilometres of a total distance of altogether 42.195 kilometres. However, at that point
Chane, the debutant took charge of the race and started leading rest of the group.
By the half marathon mark, Chane had consumed one hour, one minute and forty seven seconds and he was predicted to end the race by at most two hours, and ten or eleven minutes. However, the guy probably elevated the pace too much on a day when the sun had
made the temperature to rise 22 C even at the start of the race. The second part of the race became further hotter, making it rather difficult for the runners to keep the pace.
Runner up of the race, 25 years old Chane, while talking to the media said that he wanted to go faster, however at around 37 kilometres of distance his hip bone started to hurt amid which he had to slow down. The pain caused the runner to lower the pace
from under three per kilometre to over 3 minutes which proved his undoing. While Temam was of the view that he was going to finish after his pacing duty, however later on it proved easier to keep on running on the track; he merely hitched a ride on Chane’s
wake, but when all of the rivals had fell apart, he decided to take the ultimate lead.
Macharia, who also had been there in the leading group fallen away after the 35 kilometres mark, however the guy managed to finish third. In fact, he was the one who made the most decisive move at the victory ceremony. A huge Ethiopian flag was brought for
Temam and Chane, however, when the latter tried to wrap it around Macharia as well, the Kenyan was having none of it as a firm had removed it from his shoulders.
The battle was not that fierce for the women’s race as Etaferehu Tarekegn from Ethiopia, being the pre favourite for the race played her role impeccably. Keeping the pace right from the beginning, the athlete was heading a group of three runners even after
crossing the 30 kilometres mark. This was the time when she began to push the pace. By the 37 kilometres mark, she was alone heading towards the finishing line. She made it to cross the finishing line in two hours, forty one minutes and fifteen seconds.
Talking to the reporters about her success, the girl was of the view that though the heat did not bother her much, it definitely made a difference. Mihiret Anamo, Tarekegn’s colleague stood second in the race, while Irina Kazuboskaya from Russia ended third.
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