The autumn Abbott World Marathon Majors season is still more than a month away, but there has been movement in the leaderboards after two thrilling races at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene.
There was double delight for Ethiopia in the American track and field heartland as Gotytom Gebreslase and Tamirat Tola took the men’s and women’s titles.
Alongside their gold medals, the pair earn 25 points in the Abbott World Marathon Majors Series XIV standings for their victories in Oregon.
For Gebreslase, who broke away from Kenya’s Judith Korir in the final two kilometers to seal her triumph, the result comes less than a year after she surged to first place on her marathon debut at the 2021 BMW BERLIN MARATHON, underlining the potential the 27-year old has to mix it with the very best fields in future AbbottWMM races.
She also demolished Paula Radcliffe’s 2:20:57 world championship record, crossing the line in 2:18:11.
Korir came home nine seconds behind the winner in a new personal best of 2:10:20, while 2020 Tokyo champion Lonah Chemtai Salpeter took bronze in 2:20:18.
Series points also went to fourth-place Nazret Weldu from Eritrea (2:20:29) and the USA’s Sara Hall, who was fifth in a season’s best 2:22:10.
Tola’s win was far more dominant, leaving no doubt after the 34km mark to secure the top step on the men's podium by over a minute, with another championship record time of 2:05:37.
Mosinet Geremew, a serial podium finisher in London, took silver in 2:04:44 with Olympic bronze medallist Bashir Abdi adding the same color to his collection, just four seconds behind Geremew.
Canada’s Cameron Levins scored his first AbbottWMM series points with a national record 2:07:09 to take fourth ahead of two-time TCS New York City champion Geoffrey Kamworor who ran a season’s best 2:07:14.
View the current standings in the elite series XIV here.
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