Too Good: Eluid wins Dublin Marathon

It was a Kenyan double at Monday’s Dublin Marathon as Eliud Too and Esther Macharia won the men’s and women’s events respectively.

Too finished the race in 2:14:47, a comfortable nine seconds clear of his nearest rival and fellow Kenyan, Paul Koech Kimutai.

Russia’s Dmitriy Safronov finished third in the men’s event having led the way for 20 miles of the race.

In the women’s event, Esther Macharia edged out former Irish Olympian and last year’s winner, Maria McCambridge, to claim first place. McCambridge ran an impressive race and finished just four seconds behind Macharia.

In the wheelchair race, Patrick Monahan smashed the course record by five minutes on his way to first place with a time of 1:52:43.

The Dublin Marathon saw over 14,500 runners compete this year. Over 4,000 of those came from overseas to compete. It was the fifth year in a row that the marathon has seen a record attendance.

Last year’s winner and national champion Sean Hehir did not compete. His winning time of 2:18:19 was comfortably beaten by Too. However, the course record of 2:08:33, set by Geoffrey Ndungu in 2011, was never in danger of being broken.

A cool, overcast morning greeted all those who came to the event, conditions that were perfect for runner and spectator alike.

This year, the 35th edition of the event took on a Viking theme as inspired by Ireland’s commemoration of 1,000 years since the battle of Clontarf.

The course had also been changed this year due to ongoing works on the LUAS lines in the city centre. The race finished at Merrion Square instead of Nassau Street and College Green as was the case in previous years.

The 42km route for race was mostly flat and took the runners in a counter-clockwise loop that took in Stephen’s Green and Phoenix Park before heading south around University College Dublin and back in towards town.

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