MARATHON POPULAR DE VALENCIA, SPAIN – Good conditions — 15°C and relatively little wind, along with a group which stayed together long into the race — allowed the course record to be broken by one minute.

The men’s race quickly became a contest of East Africa vs the rest of the world, as there was only one non Kenyan or Ethiopian in the group of about a dozen after the first four kilometres.
By this time in the women’s race, Alemu Zinash had already taken a clear lead over Peris Poywo and Valentina Polavska.
By halfway the men’s group was reduced to eight, while in the women’s race Ana Casares Polo had worked her way up towards third place. The women’s top placings then remained unchanged throughout the second half of the race.

Despite the more open nature of the second half of the course, usually run into the wind, runners slowed relatively little.
There were still four men together with 800m to go, and in the stadium finish straight an epic struggle for the podium placings was fought out until the final few metres.

MEN:
1 Samson LOYWAPET KEN 2:12:04
2 Teklu TEFERA ETH 2:12:05
3 David KIRUI KEN 2:12:09
4 Ben Kipruo CHEBET KEN 2:12:19
5 Abraham CHELANGA KEN 2:13:52
6 Samuel MOLDEA KEN 2:17:57
7 Marek DRYJA POL 2:23:47
8 Ernest KIPYEGO KEN 2:26:15
9 Jorge Aubeso MARTINEZ ESP 2:27:01
10 Francisco Lazaro SESA ESP 2:27:27

WOMEN:
1 Alemu XINASH ETH 2:39:07
2 Valentina POLAVSKA 2:40:40
3 Ana CASARES POLO ESP 2:41:55
4 Peris POYWO KEN 2:44:28
5 Joanna CHMIEL POL 2:45:10
6 Olha KOTOVSKA 2:45:41
7 Cristina Gomes ALMARAZ ESP 2:54:11
8 Teresa Gracia GOMES ESP 2:55:58
9 Beatrice Pellicer AMAT ESP 3:02:41
10 Elsilia Torrez VENTURA ESP 3:04:53

Source:
AIMS – Association of International Marathons and Road Races
www.aims-association.org
AIMS