Ethiopian sweep at Daegu Marathon

Running in his first Marathon since failing to finish over the distance at last August’s World Championships, Chimsa broke away from 2009 winner Ji Young-Jun of Korea after 35 kilometres to take the convincing victory, the first of his international career. The 33-year-old Ethiopian fell a little shy of Ji’s 2:08:30 course record set last year.

Although fading during the waning kilometre, Ji held on to finish second in 2:09:31, well ahead of Ethiopia’s Wegayehu Girma Tefera, who was third in 2:10:09.

In the women’s race, the 24-year-old Esayias led a top-four sweep for Ethiopia with the fastest run of her career, and her second sub-2:30 performance.

Harun Makda was a distant second in 2:30:44, just three seconds ahead of Mulu Seboka. Martha Markos was fourth with a personal best of 2:32:11 to finish out the Ethiopian sweep.