The 2016 Olympic 10,000m champion Almaz Ayana and the world 1500m record holder Genzebe Dibaba will be making their historical move to marathon at the 47th edition of the Amsterdam Marathon that will be held on October 16, 2022.
The 30 year-old smashed the 10,000m record at the Rio Olympics Games in a time of 29:17.45 erasing the old record of the 23 year-old record by 14 seconds that had been set by Wang Junxia from China. The record lasted for five years and was broken by Dutch superstar Sifan Hassan to 29:06.82 which lasted for only two days as it was lowered by her compatriot Letensebet Gidey at the Ethiopian trials on the same track with a time of 29:01.03.
The two times world 5000m and 10,000m champion, Ayana returned to the game after taking a sabbatical leave of nearly three years and made a huge announcement at the Great North Run where she finished in third place behind the double world 5000m champion, Hellen Obiri who will also be making her marathon debut in New York this year.
The 31 year-old, Dibaba, will follow her older sisters and fellow Olympic medalists Tirunesh and Ejegayehu into the marathon. Dibaba still holds 1500m world record of 3:50.07 that she set in 2015, though Faith Kipyegon threaten the record this year when she fell short of the record with 31 seconds as she set the second-fastest time in history of 3:50.37 last month in Monaco.
Dibaba who missed the 2019 World Championships with a right foot injury and Tokyo Olympics, ran the then-fastest debut half marathon for a woman of 1:05.18 in Valencia in 2020. The five time world Indoor champion ran the Dubai half marathon early this year but she dropped out due to fatigue.
