History was made Sunday at the World Athletics Elite Label Road Race, the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K race when Kenya’s Daniel Simiu Ebenyo and Ethiopian Sutume Asefa Kebede smashed the event records in the men’s and women’s categories as they set up a blistering pace to finish with a timing of 1.11:13 and 1.18:47 respectively.
Incidentally, the winning timings turned out to be the ‘World Bests’ for a stand-alone 25K race!
Although the 25K is not a listed distance for the official world records at present, the earlier world bests for the stand-alone 25K race were 1:11:18 by Dennis Kimetto (2012) and 1:19:53 by Mary Jepkosgei Keitany (2010), both from Kenya.
The event record of Tata Steel Kolkata 25K in the Men’s category stood in the name of Kenya’s Leonard Barsoton with a timing of 1:12:49 while the Women’s record was in the name of Bahrain’s Desi Jisa with a timing of 1:21:04.
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With Sunday’s win, Ebenyo and Kebede took home a winner’s cheque of $7500 plus a bonus of USD 3000 each in the US $100,000 prize money race.
Ebenyo, who earlier this year secured two significant silver medals from Budapest Worlds (10,000m) and the World Half-Marathon championships in Riga, led the field on most occasions clocking 43:01 after crossing 15K.
An emotional Ebenyo says he is dedicating his feat to his girlfriend.
‘With God’s grace I was able to do something special here to break the course record. I thank the authorities for inviting me here. I dedicate this win to my girlfriend, whose support and encouragement helped me reach where I am today.’