ATHLETICS – BAHRAIN’S former world champion Rose Chelimo climbed the podium for third place while clocking a new personal best in the women’s event of the Osaka Marathon in Japan.
The 2017 women’s marathon gold-medallist at the world championships held in London, England, competed amongst a high-quality field of elite athletes in the prestigious event, which was a World Athletics label road race at the gold standard.
The 36-year-old distance-running specialist finished in a time of two hours 22 minutes 52 seconds – beating the previous fastest mark of her career of 2:22:25, which she set in October of last year in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Chelimo’s participation in Osaka marked her competitive debut this year. She was just over a minute behind winner Mare Dibaba of Ethiopia, who clocked a mark of 2:21:44 to claim first place. Esther Chemtai from Kenya was the runner-up in 2:22:04.
Fourth was Afera Godfay from Ethiopia in 2:23:28, fifth was Fatima Ezzahra Gardadi from Morocco in 2:24:06, and sixth was Kaede Kawamura from Japan in 2:25:55. The top eight was rounded off by Xiaoqian Zheng from China in 2:28:45 and Tara Palm from Australia in 2:31:58.
Chelimo, who is also an ex-Asian Games champion, is expected to be part of the kingdom’s senior athletics national team that will be going for gold at the 20th edition of the quadrennial Asiad, to be held in Aichi and Nagoya in Japan this September and October.
Chelimo captured her Asian Games gold at the 2018 edition held in Jakarta, Indonesia.
She is also a women’s marathon silver-medallist from the 2019 world championships held in Doha, Qatar, and raced in the women’s marathon at the Paris 2024 Olympics, which she finished in 2:32:08.
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