XIAMEN INT\’L MARATHON, CHINA – 3 JANUARY 2015:

Ethiopia's Mare Dibaba defended her title and improved her course record by one and a half minutes and became only the second woman in the last two years to dip under 2:20.

Last year she won best Meseret Legesse by five minutes; this year her winning margin was eight. Legesse was about a minute slower than last year.

The men's race was more competitive. It was only in the last few kilometres that Moses Mosop broke away from Ethiopia's Tilahun Regassa to take more than a minute off the course record set in 2013 by Getachew Terfa Negari.

Mosop's recorded the fastest marathon on Chinese soil, bettering the 2:06:32 set by the late Samuel Wanjiru when winning the 2008 Olympic title in Beijing. Regassa was also inside the previous course record.

In total, more than 43,000 runners competed in the marathon and half-marathon races.

MEN:
1  Moses MOSOP                 KEN  2:06:19
2  Tilahun REGASSA                ETH  2:06:54
3  Abrha MILAW                      ETH  2:08:09
4  Robert KWAMBAI                KEN  2:08:18
5  Tadese TOLA                      ETH  2:10:30

WOMEN:
1  Mare DIBABA                  ETH  2:19:52
2  Meseret LEGESSE              ETH  2:27:38
3  Meriem WANGARI              KEN  2:27:53
4  Meseret GODANA               ETH  2:36:11
5  Cao MOJIE                         CHN  2:43:06

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