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Yemane Haileselassie And Fentaye Belayneh Win Chilly Boston Half-Marathon

Fentaye Belayneh of Ethiopia and Yemane Haileselassie of Eritrea won this morning’s 22nd Boston Half-Marathon on a sunny and near-freezing morning here.  Employing completely different tactics, Belayneh won in a pack-sprint to the finish in Franklin Park where the first three women finished in a span of just one second. Haileselassie won in a solo breakaway, dominating the final miles and winning by 15 seconds.  Both athletes won $12,000 in prize money.

The women’s race got out slowly, and the first mile was completed in just 5:41, a comfortable training pace for athletes at this level.  Britain’s Calli Hauger-Thackery was at the front.  She said that she felt good taking the lead and wanted to work on some of her racing skills.

“I felt good doing that,” Hauger-Thackery told Race Results Weekly.  “I was practicing not being set in a set pace.  I’ve got to practice surging… not be afraid to put in a five minute mile here and there.”

The first real move happened just before 5-K where Ethiopia’s Mestawut Fikir, who was fifth at this race last year, put in a surge.  The field responded immediately, and Kenyan’s Veronica Loleo and Daisy Jepkemei, and Ethiopians Melknat Wudu and Mebrat Gidey followed her single file.  They passed through 5-K in 17:17 and four miles in 21:45.  The downhill fourth mile was passed in a fast 5:05.

Fikir’s mini-surge only brought the lead pack down to 12.  Although the second, five-kilometer segment was faster (16:27) it wasn’t enough to dwindle the field further.  Fikir decided to go again just after the 10-K mark, and that move sent Hauger-Thackery and Australia’s Lauren Ryan several steps back.  Kenya’s Mercy Chelangat was also having trouble holding on.  Mile-8 went into the books at 5:10, and the serious racing had begun.

But after that, none of the women were keen to open up the race further, and the pace slowed enough that Chelangat managed to catch up.  Remarkably, eight women were still together as they ran back to Franklin Park for the finish.  Indeed, the race would not be decided until the final 200 meters when Belayneh, who had not led one step of the race, jumped the field and broke for the tape.  She was ready for that kind of move.

“I prepared very well and I knew Boston was a good course,” Belayneh said with the help of a translator.  “I prepared very well.”

Fikir and Senayet Getachew, another Ethiopian, were right on Belayneh’s heels as she bolted for the tape, but they just couldn’t catch their speedier rival.  She broke the tape, arms raised with a huge smile, in 1:10:26.  Fikir was given the same time, and Getachew was just one second back.  Loleo got fourth in 1:10:29, and Wudu was fifth in 1:10:30.  The first seven women finished in just a six-second span.

“At the end, I decided at the end,” Belayneh said when asked when she knew that the time was right for her final move.  “It was a rough race, but I knew I could hold on and push.  I had some little (energy) left over.  I used that.”

Farther behind, Chelangat finished eighth in 1:10:43 and Hauger-Thackery was ninth in 1:10:49.  The two women, both former NCAA stars who know each other from training in Flagstaff, embraced at the finish line.

“It was fun, it was good,” said Hauger-Thackery, who plans to run the California International Marathon in December with her husband, Nick.  She added: “This was a good race to go for it, get the blood flowing.”

Unlike Belayneh, Haileselassie did not want to wait for the final sprint.  In the ninth mile, he and Isaac Kipkemboi of Kenya and Haimro Alame of Israel pulled away from the field. Haileselassie was on the front, and kept pressing.

“Actually, when I lead in mile-nine I give them a little bit gap,” Haileselassie told Race Results Weekly.  “I looked over my back, I had little bit gap.  I know they can’t touch me.”

The Eritrean crossed to the finish line alone in 1:01:46.  Kipkemboi was a clear second in 1:02:01, but Alame faded in the final miles and only finished sixth in 1:02:12.  Taking the final podium position was Canadian miler Kieran Lumb, who was making his half-marathon debut.  Lumb, who made the Paris Olympic 1500m semi-finals, was timed in 1:02:03.  He was happy with his race, a good fitness test before the Canadian Cross Country Championships later this month, even if it hurt a little.

“It was hard,” said Lumb.  “Honestly, it was pretty hard early on.  I would say, like 20 minutes in, I didn’t feel amazing.  I did not sleep well last night, either.  I slept like four hours.”

Today’s event was the third and final race in the 2024 Boston Athletic Association’s Distance Medley which included the Boston 5-K on April 13 and the Boston 10-K on June 23.  About 6500 runners finished today’s race.