Bahrain's elite athlete Tigist Gashaw secured an impressive victory in the women’s race of the Chang’an Automobile Chongqing Marathon, held in Chongqing, China.
Competing against a strong field of distance-running specialists, Gashaw won in a total time of two hours 24 minutes 44 seconds.
The meeting was a gold-standard World Athletics Label Road Race.
Gashaw finished around half-a-minute ahead of runner-up Burtukan Yifru of Ethiopia, who clocked in at 2:25:15, while Yifru’s compatriot Chernet Misganaw finished third in 2:25:43.
Three Chinese competitors were ranked fourth through sixth, respectively, including Changqin Ding (2:29:09), Qing Zhu (2:30:28), and Fei Huang (2:31:29). Completing the top eight were Dadi Alemu (2:31:45) of Ethiopia and Gladys Kiptoo (2:32:57) of Kenya.
Gashaw was the lone Bahraini participant in the race.
The former world youth champion in the women’s 1,500m finished five seconds shy in Chongqing from matching her personal best in the marathon of 2:24:39, which she set last year in Daegu, South Korea. It was her second competitive run in the distance this year, having also raced in the C&D Xiamen Marathon in the Chinese city of Xiamen in January, which she did not finish.
Gashaw is also a silver-medallist in the Asian Games as well as in the Asian championships, both outdoor and indoor – all in the women’s 1,500m.
The 28-year-old was also part of the title-winning Bahrain women’s team in the 27th Arab Cross-Country Championships, held at the Dead Sea in Jordan last month. Gashaw was the individual silver-medallist from women’s event, and she joined Bahrain’s reigning world and Olympic champion Winfred Yavi, who won gold, and individual bronze-medallist Shitaye Eshete, as part of the kingdom’s women’s squad that secured the teams’ crown.
Gashaw is a major candidate to be a part of the Bahrain contingent that will be competing in this year’s World Athletics Championships 2025 in Tokyo, Japan, this September.
Meanwhile, in another world-class event, Bahrain’s Desi Jisa Mokonin claimed a top 10 finish in the women’s race of the Tokyo Marathon, held in Tokyo, Japan.
The event was a platinum-standard World Athletics Label Road Race.
Mokonin finished sixth overall amongst a high-quality roster of elite runners. She completed her run in a personal best of 2:20:07 – nearly four minutes behind winner Sutume Asefa Kebede of Ethiopia, who clocked a time of 2:16:31 in first place.
Winfridah Moraa Moseti of Kenya finished second in 2:16:56, while Hawi Feysa of Ethiopia was third in 2:17:00.
Finishing ahead of Mokonin were Magdalyne Masai (2:19:28) and Rosemary Wanjiru (2:19:57), both of Kenya, while behind her completing the top eight were Gotytom Gebreslase (2:20:25) and Degitu Azimeraw (2:20:26), both from Ethiopia.
The race was Mokonin’s second for this year. The 27-year-old also competed in the women’s race of the Osaka Marathon in Osaka, Japan in January, but did not finish.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
Top stories for today:
Kingdom pioneering weather forecasting
Bahrain ‘is committed to achieving growth goals’
87 violators deported in crackdown
&uuid=(email))