Abadi Hadis took the win in The Bahrain Half-Marathon Two seconds cost the second place runner $75,000

The Bahrain Night Half saw some very fast results as runners chased one of the biggest prize purses in road racing. The top four men were only separated by seven seconds and with $100,000 USD on the line, that’s a painful margin to lose by. Abadi Hadis took the win in 59:42, he was followed by Jemal Yimer in 59:45, Bernard Ngeno was third in 59:47 and Fikadu Haftu was forth in 59:49. 

In the women’s race, Brigid Kosgei, who’s the 2018 Chicago champion, took the win in 1:05:28 which is under 40 seconds off of the women’s world record set in 2017 by Joyciline Jepkosgei. Second place went to Ruth Chepngetich in 1:06:09 and third place went to Netsanet Gudeta in 1:06:49. 

After the huge first place prize, the money drops off by 75 per cent. Second place gets $25,000 and third place gets $15,000, and then there’s another drop after the podium finishes with fourth only taking home $10,000 USD. The elite fields were so tight that in the men’s race, seven seconds was the difference between $100,000 and $10,000.

posted Friday March 15th