Melat Kejeta from the Kassel running team finished eleventh after a strong race in the marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest on Saturday (08/26/2023). The three medals went to runners from Africa.
Kejeta, who was born in Ethiopia, ran a courageous race in the DLV jersey in temperatures of around 25 degrees in the early morning. The 30-year-old kept up with the leading group up to about 30 kilometers, but then couldn’t keep up with the high speed. Unlike the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, when she finished sixth, Kejeta narrowly missed out on a top ten finish in Budapest. Ten seconds down on tenth place, she finished eleventh and second best European after 2:29:04 hours. “I’m happy with the race. The heat was too much for me,” said Kejeta in an interview with Sportschau.
Shankule breaks away decisively
With almost six kilometers to go, Amane Beriso Shankule from Ethiopia launched the decisive attack at the front of the field. She took gold in 2:24:23 ahead of defending champion and teammate Gotytom Gebreselasie (2:24:34) and Moroccan Fatima Ezzahra Gardadi (2:25:17).
The African runners once again used the marathon in Budapest to show their strength. Just a few kilometers after the start of the 78 participants, a quartet from Ethiopia with three Kenyans, three runners from Uganda and Fatima Ezzahra Gardadi from Morocco took the lead. With Kejeta and Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, who started for Israel, only two runners from non-African nations could keep up in this group.