Hurisa runs into record books on borrowed shoes

MUMBAI: Ethiopia’s Derera Hurisa set a course record on borrowed shoes to win the men’s race while compatriot Amane Beriso narrowly missed the mark while topping the women’s race in the Mumbai Marathon on Sunday.

Hurisa, 22, is essentially a cross-country runner who had yet to run a full marathon arriving in India’s commercial capital a few days. Importantly, he landed without his favourite pair of shoes. However, he borrowed the Nike Vaporfly—the favourite of elite runners of late—from compatriot Abraham Girma.

The young Ethiopian clocked a superb 2 hours, 8 minutes, nine seconds, finishing under the previous course record of 2:08:35 set by Gideon Kipketer in 2016.

It was an Ethiopian clean sweep in the men’s elite race with Ayele Abshero (2:08:20) and Birhanu Teshome (2:08:26) finishing second and third respectively with the first three coming under the old course record. The classy field saw the first seven finishers coming under 2:10.

“I lost my shoes travelling from Addis Ababa to Mumbai, so I borrowed from my friend Abraham only yesterday,” Hurisa said. The leading trio were together coming up to the final kilometer, but Hurisa, whose best showing until Sunday was claiming the U-20 silver in the African cross-country meet four years ago and winning a half-marathon in Turkey two years ago, accelerated ahead of Abshero and Teshome. “Ayele is experienced, and I kept telling him to take charge of the race. But I sensed he was holding back and I decided to finish,” said Hurisa, who won $60,000, including a record bonus of $15,000.

BERISO IS BACK

In the women’s elite event, Amane Beriso ended a 15-month injury layoff in style to win at 2:24:51. Jepkorir (2:27:14) won silver and Ethiopia’s Haven Hailu was third (2:28:56).

Srinu Bugatha and Sudha Si ngh won t he men’s a nd women’s full marathons in the Indian Elite category. Bugatha clocked 2:18:44 while Sudha Singh won in 2:45:30, finishing 10th overall among women.

DEATH ON COURSE

A 64-year-old retired bank officer died after suffering cardiac arrest while taking part in the Senior Citizen’s run, Dr Vijay D’silva, medical director of the marathon, said . Gajanan Maljalkar, hailing from Nala Sopara town in Maharashtra, was given initial medical help at the base camp before being shifted to Bombay Hospital, where he died.