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Feb-15-2006
Postponed Dubai Marathon Set for Friday
by David Monti
(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
The seventh annual Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon is set to take place on
Friday after being postponed from its original date of Jan. 6. The
postponement was caused by a mandatory period of mourning after the death of
ruler Sheikh Maktoum who has been replaced by his younger brother, Sheikh
Mohamed.
The delay in holding the race will no doubt have an effect on the
performances of the top athletes whose training programs were geared to
provide top efforts more than a month ago. But perhaps for defending
champion Dejene Guta of Ethiopia, the extra time may have helped him get
over a nagging hip injury. He ran 2:10:45 last year, his personal best, and
earned $25,000.
His challengers will be compatriots Belay Wolashe, Tesfaye Bogale, and Dawit
Trfe, plus the Kenyan David Kirui, who ran 2:08:53 at the Paris Int'l
Marathon in 2003 (7th position). Kirui is an inconsistent runner, evidenced
by his 2:27:10 in New York later the same year, followed by his victory at
the City of Los Angeles Marathon in the spring of 2004 in 2:13:41.
On the women's side, Ethiopian Diribe Hunde will try to defend her title and
better last year's winning time of 2:39:08. She'll almost certainly need to
run faster than that to beat her pint-sized compatriot, Shitaye Gemechu, who
has a 2:26:15 career best time and who has won the P.F. Chang's Rock 'n'
Roll Arizona Marathon three times. Romanian Luminita Talpos, who towers
over Gemechu, also hopes to win the race. More of an all-purpose road
racer, Talpos nonetheless has run a very strong 2:27:32 for the marathon
distance, finishing sixth at Osaka in 2003.
Organizers are hoping for relatively cool conditions in the range of 15C.
The race starts at 7:00 a.m. and there is a USD 150,000 prize purse on the
line with $25,000 going to the male and female winners (last year's women's
winner only earned $15,000).
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