Thaindian News

By Gina Gomez
Honolulu, Dec 13, (THAINDIAN NEWS) World’s sixth largest marathon, known as the Honolulu Marathon took place on Sunday and Nicholas Chelimo from Kenya took away the coveted prize money after winning the event. Among women Ethiopia’s Belainesh Gebre won the marathon by completing it in 2:32:13. However, Belainesh Gebre’s win had to face controversy as the judges had a bit of confusion between her and Svetlana Zakharova of Russia. The judges at first assumed that the winner received illegal assistance from her boyfriend Sisay Tsegaya. However, later the video footage clarified all the doubts and Belainesh Gebre was declared as the winner.

The President of Honolulu Marathon, Jim Barahal said that the coach did not act or behave improperly. On the other hand, Sisay Tsegaya said he is not the coach of Belainesh Gebre. This year, there were 22,806 participants in the Honolulu Marathon who ran the streets to win title. However, in the end, Nicholas Chelimo won the title among men by completing the marathon in 2:15:28. His fellow contestant Kenyan Richard Limo also finished the race in 2:17:18. The winner received $40,000 as the prize money and $1,000 time bonus for his commendable performance. Nicholas Chelimo previously won Japan’s Nagano Marathon, early this year.

After winning Honolulu Marathon, Nicholas Chelimo said that he is happy to complete and win the competition. He said that his pace was “tactical” as at some point he picked up the speed and at some point he was running slow. He said that his previous experiences have taught him to balance his pace so that it does not become terrible for him to run in the end. Nicholas Chelimo’s agent Zane Branson said that the winner had an advantage this year as he participated in the same marathon last year and he knows all the pros and cons.