ATHLETICS – A trio of Bahraini elite athletes put in impressive performances in their respective marathons in Germany on Sunday.
Shitaye Eshete set a new personal best but narrowly missed out on a podium in the women’s event at the Haspa Marathon Hamburg in Hamburg, where fellow-Bahraini Roselida Jepketer joined Eshete in the top 10, while also registering a new individual record.
On the distaff, Bahrain’s Zelalem Bacha finished sixth in the men’s race of the Uniper Dusseldorf Marathon in Dusseldorf.
Both events were part of the 2025 calendar of World Athletics, track and field’s international governing body.
In Hamburg, Eshete completed the women’s run in two hours 20 minutes 32 seconds – the new fastest mark of her career for the marathon, eclipsing her previous record of 2:21:33, which she set in 2019.
Eshete was classified just under three minutes behind winner Workenesh Edesa of Ethiopia, who bagged the gold medal in 2:17:55. Brigid Kosgei of Kenya won silver in 2:18:26, while Sichala Kumeshi, also of Ethiopia, joined them on the podium as bronze-medalist after finishing in 2:19:53.
Jepketer completed the race in a time of 2:28:51 for her classification amongst a high-quality field of more than 40 elite runners from around the world. Her mark was her new personal best, beating her old top time of 2:32:56, which she set last year.
Eshete was competing in her second race of the year after also running in a marathon in Mumbai, India, in January, when she took second place. The former Asian champion and World Military Games champion clocked a mark of 2:25:29 then.
Meanwhile, Jepketer was making her competitive debut this season in Hamburg.
In Dusseldorf, Bacha put in a strong run and he completed the men’s race in 2:14:17. He was over five minutes behind gold-medalist Alex Maier of the US, who clocked a winning time of 2:08:33. Benson Nzioki of Kenya came away with the silver in 2:08:48, while Peter Lynch of Ireland clinched bronze in 2:09:36.
Bacha was also making his first competitive run of 2025. He was several minutes off his personal best of 2:07:09, which he clocked in 2020.
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