More than 12,000 runners participated in this today’s 35th version of the Nykredit Copenhagen Marathon, and a mere 2 hours 17 minutes and 54 seconds after race start, favourite Julius Mutai of Kenya crossed the finish line as this year’s winner. Much pointed to a new course record, but as it turns out, much can happen in the span of a marathon.
MENS RACE
This years winner of Copenhagen Nykredit Marathon, Julius Mutai (Kenya) was for a long time expected to break the existing course record for Nykredit Copenhagen Marathon, set back in 1986. Mutai, together with four other runners, set off at a blistering pace leaving all other runners behind them. The halfway point was passed in 1:05:15, and at this point Mutai decided to leave his competitors behind and finish the rest of the race alone.
With 30 km covered, he started to show fatigue and dropped his pace down a little, finishing in the time of 2:17:54. Even with the drop in pace Mutai still left almost 4 minutes down to his closest competitor, Amare A Abebe who finished in 2:21:34, while third place went to Abdellatif Ait Hsine (BHR).
Best Dane in the men’s race was expectedly Thorkild Sundstrup running for Århus Fremad, who ran the entire race solo and came in at 2:25:31. Nonetheless, Thorkild, managed a new personal best cutting a minute of his previous time, though he believes that it could have been even more if he had another runner at his side.
WOMENS RACE
The women’s race, was much like the men’s, and was dominated by the foreign runners. A trio of Kenyan and Ethiopian runners quickly took a lead and formed a group fronted by Rael Kimayo Jepyator, sticking together to about the 30km mark. Here the winner to be, Ayelu Abebe Hordofa, managed to leave the other two runners behind and set off on her own. She came in as the first women in a time 2:40:02, very emotional as this was her first international marathon win. The women’s course record was never at risk as the pace all the way from the begining of the race was a bit too slow to beat the record.
Best domestic woman was surprisingly Lone Balling from Skive who set the pace high from the very start, keeping her competitor Luise Sønder (Skive AM) behind her the entire race. This ended with Lone cutting a full 2 minutes off her personal best. Luise who was the favorite to finish as the first danish woman says this:
“Already 15km out I could tell it was not working out as I had hoped. I knew from there on it would be a battle, but I WANTED to complete the race”
WINNERS OF THE 2014 NYKREDIT COPENHAGEN MARATHON
Men’s race
1. Julius Mutai Mutai, Kenya – 2:17.54
2. Amare E Abebe, Ethiopia – 2:21.34
3. Abdellatif Ait Hasine, Bahrain – 2:24.37
4. Thomas Bereket Tewelde, Norway 2:25:20
5. Thorkild Sundstrup, Denmark 2:25:31
Women’a race
1. Ayelu Abebe Hordofa, Ethiopia – 2:40.02
2. Rael Kimaiyo, Jepyator – 2:42.21
3. Herriet Jepchumba Chebore, Kenya – 2:48.00
4. Lone Balling, Denmark 2:49:10
5. Luise Sønder, Denmark 2:53:56
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