BUDAPEST: Amane Beriso Shankule on Saturday beat defending champion and compatriot Gotytom Gebreslase to take Ethiopia to win its third women’s marathon title in the past five editions of the World Athletics Championships.
The world’s top runners had to brave scorching and humid conditions in Budapest, with temperatures reaching 29 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit) by the time the race finished.
However, conditions became even tougher and more challenging for the decathletes, female shot putters, and spectators in the stadium.
Some rejoiced the heat, but others, like decathlon overnight leader Leo Neugebauer of Germany, wilted at the start of day two; the 23-year-old went down to fourth after the first two events of the day.
World silver medallist Pierce LePage from Cabada topped the point table going into the morning’s final event, the pole vault.
Whoever managed to prevail would be a new world champion as titleholder Kevin Mayer from France was out of the event due to an injury last Friday.
Ethiopian Athletes Shine
Shankule, whose victory at last year’s Valencia marathon put her third on the world all-time list, timed 2hr 24min 23sec to grab her gold on the streets of Budapest.
Defending champion Gotytom Gebreslase managed to win silver for running 11 second behind, with Morocco’s Fatima Ezzahra Gardadi settled at number three with bronze in 2:25.17.
“We knew if we worked together, we could get a better result, and we worked well as a team today,” Shankule said of the Ethiopian quartet’s race strategy.
Germany, once an athletics powerhouse, is still awaiting their first medal of these championships as their hopes were refreshed by Neugebauer, the world leader this year, holding a 30-point overnight lead over LePage.
However, he slipped to third slot after a disappointing performance in the opening event on Saturday, the 110m hurdles.
Both LePage and his teammate, Olympic champion Damian Warner, surpassed him in the overall standings as they put on a fine display of high hurdling.
LePage exceeded Warner by 18 points, with Neugebauer almost 100 points down on the leader.
Expectations Still High
Meanwhile, LePage remerged with full passion on Saturday, turning up the pressure on Neugebauer in the following discipline, the discus.
The 27-year-old’s first attempt flew out to 50.98m whilst Neugebauer posted a modest 45.26m — 10m off his personal best.
He managed a slight improvement on his third and final attempt of 47.63m which provided him a morale boost ahead of the pole vault.
Neugebauer was deprived of the medal positions altogether after a remarkable three throws by the two-time Commonwealth Games champion Lindon Victor from Grenada.
The 30-year-old warmed up with a 51.48m first attempt, followed by improvement with a world-best discus throw in a decathlon of 54.64m to move into bronze position.
