Thaindian News

By Madhuri Dey
Jan 30, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Mohamed Trafeh of Morocco on Saturday emerged out to be the winner of the U.S. Half-Marathon championship maintaining the African tradition of winning a marathon. It was not just about maintaining the tradition but also about setting a record surpassing the one that was earlier set by U.S record-holder Ryan Hall. Numerous athletes from the African sub-continent are known to crack the results of a marathon race and that was exactly what Mohamed Trafeh stuck to.

Mohamed Trafeh won the race by finishing the 13.1-mile race in 1 hour 2 minutes and 17 seconds while Ryan Hall in 2007 completed it for 1 hour 2minutes and 20 seconds. The African beat the American’s record by an inch of 3 seconds. Last year’s runner Patrick Smyth grabbed the third position on Saturday by completing the race in 1 hour 2 minutes and 32 seconds. Coming to the women, it was three time Olympic champion Jen Rhines who notched the first place completing it within 1 hour 11 minutes and 14 seconds. Serena Burla made it to the second with 1 hour 11 minutes and 38 seconds while the third place was earned by Nan Kennard for 1 hour 12 minutes and 3 seconds.

Thousands of people from all over the United States had turned up to witness the mega sports event. It was 63 male participants along with 41 females who started the race on Saturday. The runners who had come from various corners of the globe for the United States Half Marathon championship were required to follow an eight mile loop. Incidentally, this eight loop is the same one that will be used for the marathon trials in January 2012 for the U.S Olympics. This time the route had some hairpins for which runners at times got slowed down.