Diriba and Berhanu strike late to give Ethiopia Amsterdam Marathon double
Buze Diriba and Lemi Berhanu delivered both victories for Ethiopia. In the men's race, six seconds separated Berhanu from Kenya's Nicholas Kipkorir.
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Two Ethiopian victories, both sealed with a surge in the final kilometres. Buze Diriba and Lemi Berhanu won the Amsterdam Marathon on Sunday 18 October. In the women's race, Diriba left Aynalem Desta behind. In the men's, Berhanu eventually shook off Kenya's Nicholas Kipkorir, who finished second, six seconds back.
Both races stayed open for a long time. Rain and wet roads accompanied this edition, which finished in the Olympic Stadium. The early split times gave no hint of the winners' fast finishes: it was in the closing stages of the 42.195 kilometres that the decisive gaps opened up.
Diriba pulls clear as Ethiopia sweeps women's podium
A group of four Ethiopian women set the pace at the front for a long time. Diriba and Desta then broke away from their rivals, before Desta could no longer follow her compatriot's surge. The defending champion thus gave up her place at the top, though she held on to a spot on the podium.
Diriba is first in 2:16:12 by gun time, measured from the starting signal. Desta finished second in 2:17:06 and Meseret Belete third in 2:18:06. Ethiopia therefore occupies the top three places in the women's standings.
Diriba's result also carries a time of 2:16:10, often quoted in race reports. That is her net time, measured between her crossing of the start and finish mats. The two seconds' difference from the gun time changes neither her position nor the identity of the winner. Both measurements appear separately in the results.
Berhanu answers Kipkorir's attack
The men's race also waited until the end to be settled. Six athletes were still together around the thirty-eighth kilometre. Kipkorir accelerated and Berhanu went with him. The duel went on, but the Kenyan could not shake off the Ethiopian, who then took the lead.
Berhanu finished in 2:03:33, against 2:03:39 for Kipkorir. Patrick Mosin completes the podium in 2:03:58. For these three runners, gun time and net time are identical: the six seconds separating the top two match the difference shown in both columns.
The Ethiopian double thus came through two different scenarios: an all-Ethiopian women's podium, and a men's duel between Berhanu and Kipkorir, with Mosin twenty-five seconds behind the winner.