News

Felix is at her marathon best

Home

Paula Radcliffe waved almost all the way as she brought her competitive marathon career to an end on Sunday but it was a day in London where Portugal’s Ana Dulce Felix made her own good impression over the 26.2 miles.

Felix had entered the race with a personal best of 2:25:40 and for stages she was leading a strong field. While the group of African runners were lining up behind to her challenge, the Portuguese produced the performance of her life over the distance.

As Ethiopian Tigist Tufa won in 2:23:22, Felix ended eighth and leading European in a best of 2:25:15.

The time was just one second outside of the mark in which France’s Christelle Daunay won gold at last summer’s European Athletics Championships in Zurich and while London is a much different course, it is all about improvement.

The decision of Felix to move to the marathon is looking a good one as she was a place ahead of Belarusian Volha Mazuronak who had a brilliant run bringing her personal best time down by eight minutes as she was ninth in 2:25:36.

Great Britain’s Radcliffe, the world record-holder who started with the mass runners, bowed out in 2:36:55 and she was overcome with the occasion.

She said: 'It was just amazing the whole way round. I wore sunglasses to keep a lid on my emotions and they definitely hid some tears along the way.'

[PHOTO src='1275971' size='mediumLandscape' align='right']

As Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge won the men’s race in 2:04:42, Spain’s Javi Guerra was seventh in 2:09:33, the second fastest time by a European this year, followed by Russia’s Aleksey Reunkov in ninth with 2:10:10 with Ukraine’s Serhiy Lebid in 10th in 2:10:21.

In Dusseldorf, there was a European victory as Romania’s Marius Ionescu triumphed in the city’s marathon in 2:13:19 as he beat Belgium’s Abdelhadi El Hachimi by 27 seconds while in Warsaw, the Polish men’s title went to Henryk Szost as he finished ninth in 2:10:11 as Ethiopian Lemi Berhanu won in 2:07:57.

And the triumph of Belgium’s Florent Caelen in Antwerp came in 2:16:08 which was inside the qualifying standard for next year’s Olympic Games in Rio as he beat Lander Van Droogenbroeck in 2:19:46.

Away from the roads, it was the Russian Cross Country Championships in Zhukovsky and another day of glory for Ilgizar Safiulin.

Back in December Safiulin led a Russian cleansweep when he won the under-23 at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Samokov and this time he took the national 4km title in 11.25 as Aleksandr Novikov won the 8km in 23:47.

Dina Aleksandrova was first in the women’s 2km in 6:04 and Gulshat Fazlitdinova, who won under-23 bronze in Samokov, won the 6km in 19:45.




Official Partners
Official Partners
Official Partners
Official Partners
Official Partners
Official Partners
Broadcast Partner
Broadcast Partner
Preferred Suppliers
Supporting Hotel
Photography Agency