Belay, Debele secure Ethiopian double in Riga Marathon

Andualem Belay and Beyene Debele secured an Ethiopian double at the Riga Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label road race, and smashed the Latvian all-comers’ records in the process on Sunday.

Belay won convincingly in 2:08:51, the second-fastest time of his career, to take more than two minutes off the course record set last year. Kenya’s Silas Kiprono Too was a distant second in 2:12:27 with Julius Tuwei taking third place in 2:14:04.

Debele’s win in the women’s race was similarly convincing. Like Belay, Debele also produced her second-fastest time to date to win in 2:26:18, improving the course record by two minutes.

Worknesh Alemu (2:27:38) was also inside the previous course record, while Kumeshi Sichala (2:29:44) completed an Ethiopian sweep of the podium positions.

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