Hula Valley Marathon

by Helmut Winter

As precautionary hygiene measures the event had not been announced in advance and was limited to an elite field of a 20 male runners and one female, Lonah Saltpeter.

Along with three pacemakers a 10-man group reached 10km in 30:40 where two of the pacers withdrew. The group reached halfway in 1:04:06 and it was only after 30km (1:31:37) that they split up as Maru Teferi, together with Girmaw Amare and Godachaw Belachaw, broke away.

The three of them had a lead of 25 seconds at 40km and this increased dramatically in the final kilometre as victory was fiercely contested. Teferi ran 6:17 for the final 2195m to win the race in 2:07:44, a Europe-leading time foor 2021. Teferi came to Israel from Ethiopia as a 14-year-old and has recently increased his level of performance considerably. Close behind him the two marathon debutants Girmaw Amare and Godadaw Belachew finished in 2:07:50 and 2:07:54 respectively.

Lonah Salpeter was the only female participant to complete a successful test run over the full marathon distance. She passed 10km in 33:53 and halfway in 1:11:31 and recorded a negative split of 1:11:06 for the second half. Her final time was 2:22:37, third fastest of the season and a Europe-leading time.