{"id":2926,"date":"2017-01-04T08:57:37","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T14:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/?p=2926"},"modified":"2017-01-04T08:57:37","modified_gmt":"2017-01-04T14:57:37","slug":"elite-fields-for-mumbai-marathon-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/news\/elite-fields-for-mumbai-marathon-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Elite Fields for Mumbai Marathon 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dinknesh<\/a><\/p>\n

Ethiopia\u2019s Ayele Abshero and Dinknesh Mekash head the elite fields at the 2017 Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon<\/p>\n

Top Class field for Mumbai Marathon<\/h3>\n

Ethiopian talent Ayele Abshero will be looking to make a big impact on his first trip to India when the gun goes for the 14th edition of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon on Sunday 15 January.<\/p>\n

Abshero, now 26, is a former world junior cross country champion and will be the fastest man on the start line. He can boast of a marathon best of 2:04:23, which was set in 2012 when he won the Dubai Marathon on his spectacular debut over the distance. At the time, it was the fastest ever debut over the distance on a record-legal course. It remains his best but he has run under 2:09:00 three times since then and he will come to Mumbai with the course record of 2:08:35, set last year by Kenya\u2019s Gideon Kipketer, very much as his target.<\/p>\n

No less than four men with personal bests under 2:08:00, and 12 who have run faster than 2:10:00, have been recruited by race promoters Procam International.<\/p>\n

Among the elite field are two men with recent SCMM experience: Ethiopia\u2019s Seboka Dibaba and Kenya<\/a>\u2019s Jacob Chesari. The pair were second and fifth respectively in 2016 and, in addition to aiming to do better this time around, they also have personal bests faster than the course record. Even though his personal best only stands at 2:09:19, another man to look out for is Alphonce Simbu. The Tanzanian was an impressive fifth at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and he could make a big improvement in Mumbai.<\/p>\n

Dinknesh Mekash Mumbai Marathon Women’s favourite<\/strong><\/p>\n

The favourite for the women\u2019s race in Mumbai looks to be Ethiopia\u2019s Dinknesh Mekash, a two-time winner in Mumbai after having triumphed in 2014 and 2015 and who has a personal best of 2:23.12, set when she finished second in the 2015 Frankfurt Marathon.<\/p>\n

There are six women in the field with personal bests under 2:30:00 but Mekash twice ran under 2:29:00 in 2016. The SCMM women\u2019s course record is 2:24:33 by Kenya\u2019s Valentine Kipketer in 2013. The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon has a total prize fund of US$384,000, making it India\u2019s richest road race, and it has established itself as one of Asia\u2019s leading races over the classic distance since it was inaugurated in 2004.<\/p>\n

Approximately 42,000 runners will take to the roads in Mumbai for the five different races in what has become an annual event on the third Sunday of January.\u00a0 In addition to the marathon, there is a half marathon, Dream Run (6km), Senior Citizens Race (4.3km) and Champions with Disability Race (2.4km).<\/p>\n

MUMBAI MARATHON MALE ELITE ATHLETES<\/strong>
\n(Personal bests below 2:10:00)<\/p>\n

Ayele Abshero\u00a0\u00a0 ETH\/1990\u00a0 2:04:23
\nLevy Matebo\u00a0\u00a0 KEN\/1989\u00a0 2:05:16
\nSeboka Dibaba\u00a0\u00a0 ETH\/1987\u00a0 2:06:17
\nJacob Chesari\u00a0\u00a0 KEN\/1984\u00a0 2:07:46
\nBeraki Beyene\u00a0\u00a0 ERI\/1980\u00a0 2:08:27
\nSamuel Mwanki KEN\/1984\u00a0 2:08:56
\nAlphonce Simbu\u00a0 TAN\/1992\u00a0 2:09:19
\nMesfin Teshome\u00a0 ETH\/1993\u00a0 2:09:24
\nDuncan Maiyo\u00a0\u00a0 KEN\/1990\u00a0 2:09:25
\nVitaliy Shafar\u00a0\u00a0 UKR\/1982\u00a0 2:09:38
\nYekeber Bayabel\u00a0 ETH\/1991\u00a0 2:09:39
\nAlfonce Kigen\u00a0\u00a0 KEN\/1993\u00a0 2:09:49<\/p>\n

MUMBAI MARATHON FEMALE ELITE ATHLETES<\/strong>
\n(Personal bests below 2:30:00)<\/p>\n

Dinknesh Mekash\u00a0 ETH\/1985\u00a0 2:23:12
\nMerima Mohamed\u00a0 BRN\/1992\u00a0 2:23:06
\nSouad-Ait Salem\u00a0 ALG\/1979\u00a0 2:25:08
\nKarolina Nadolska\u00a0 POL\/1981\u00a0 2:26:31
\nDerbe Godana\u00a0\u00a0 ETH\/1988\u00a0 2:27:32
\nChaltu Tafa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ETH\/1985\u00a0 2:29:30 ***<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethiopia\u2019s Ayele Abshero and Dinknesh Mekash head the elite fields at the 2017 Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18,33,1,46],"tags":[636,715],"class_list":["post-2926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-featured","category-mumbai","category-news","category-pre-event","tag-mumbai-marathon","tag-pre-event-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}