One of the world’s best male distance runners quietly made his marathon debut last weekend at the Zurich Maratón de Sevilla in Seville, Spain. The 2020 Olympic 10,000m champion, Selemon Barega, had lofty goals heading into his first attempt at 42.2 km, and he backed it up, winning the race outright in 2:05:15.
Barega, who has a personal best of 57:50 in the half-marathon, reportedly went into the race looking for a sub-2:03 finish. He managed to hold a 2:03-marathon pace (2:55/km) until around the 35-km mark—the point, he told reporters post-race, where he hit “the wall of the marathon” and his goal time began to dwindle.
“I knew there were great expectations for my debut, but I’m happy with my performance,” Barega said post-race. “Seville is a great city to run fast, but today I encountered ‘the wall’ of the marathon at the 35 km point, and I suffered a lot.”
Barega finished almost a minute and a half ahead of the second-place finisher, his compatriot, Tafare Adisu (2:06:27). Morocco’s Mohamed El Aaraby rounded out the podium in 2:06:45.
Despite missing his goal time, Barega said he intends to give the distance another shot, as he feels he has more experience now. The 25-year-old Ethiopian star has a promising marathon career ahead, having won three medals on the track in the 5,000 and 10,000m at major championships. He was only 21 when he became the Olympic 10,000m champion, surpassing Ethiopian great Haile Gebrselassie as the youngest runner from his country to win a gold medal in the event, at 21 years and 191 days.
Barega wasn’t the only runner to make a splash in their marathon debut in Seville—the women’s marathon winner, Anchinalu Dessie, stormed to a win in 2:22:17 over France’s Manon Trapp and Kenya’s Cynthia Kosgei. With Trapp’s second-place finish in 2:23:28, she erased the French national record of 2:24:12 set by her compatriot Méline Rollin at the Zurich Maratón de Sevilla last year.
For full results from Seville, check here.
