Tadesse Abraham beats Collins Kipkorir as he takes down the course record at Barcelona Marathon

The 2016 European Half Marathon champion, Tadesse Abraham proved that age is just a number when he thrashed younger elite athletes at the 46th edition of the Zurich Barcelona Marathon held on Sunday (10) in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

The 41 year-old who is a three time National champion, came to this race with the fastest time on paper of 2:05.10 that he got last year at the BMW Berlin Marathon, where he finished in eleventh place.

Abraham who is born in Eritrea but trades now for his adopted country Switzerland, fought-off a strong elite field that included the reigning Ljubljana Marathon champion, Edmond Kipngetich, three times Italian national champion, Iliass Aouani, Košice Peace Marathon bronze medallist, Berhane Tesfay and Collins Kipkirui Kipkorir from Kenya who was making his debut over the distance.

Tadesse who took charge of the race at the 30km mark, ran alone for the reminder of the race with a constant pace of 2:57 minutes per kilometer to crush the old course record of 2:05.06 set last year by Bahrain’s Marius Kimutai with a new course time, National record and personal best of 2:05.01.

Tadesse was followed by Kipkorir who crossed the finish in second place in 2:06.44 with Kipngetich wrapping up the podium three finishes in 2:07.21.

Iliass Aouani, Berhane Tesfay and Geoffrey Kimutai Koech from Kenya finished in fourth, fifth and sixth place in respective time of 2:08.05, 2:10.19 and 2:11.03.

LEADING RESULTS

21KM MEN

1. Tadese Abraham                 (SWZ) 2:05.01
2. Collins Kipkirui Kipkorir    (KEN) 2:06.44
3. Edmond Kipngetich            (KEN) 2:07.21
4. Iliass Aouani                        (ITA) 2:08.05
5. Berhane Tesfay                    (ETH) 2:10.19
6. Geoffrey Kimutai Koech      (KEN) 2:11.03