Story and photos by Lou Roesch
Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved
HOUSTON, TEXAS (January 19, 2020) Records are made to be broken and that’s what happened on Sunday at the 48th annual Chevron Houston Marathon. With runners from across all 50 states and representing 57 countries battling 25 mile an hour wind gusts, two national records, a world record and a Guiness World Record were set on Sunday.
Hitomi Niya of Japan got things started in the Aramco half marathon smashing both her personal best and the Japanese national record to win in the third fastest time in Aramco Houston Half Marathon history, 1:06:38. She led from start to finish and no competitor in sight as she crossed the finish line.
The men’s half marathon was a whole different story. Fourteen runners raced through the first 5K setting a pace that would put the course record (59:22) in danger. Five runners would remain to battle over the final mile last year’s runner-up, Jemal Yimer (ETH), won in 59:25. It was the second fastest time ever run in Houston and North America. Bernard Ngeno (KEN) finished second at 59:26, and Shardrack Korir (KEN) with a personal best of 59:27 took third.
Ethiopia’s Aksale Merachi in her Houston debut took the women’s marathon title in 2:23:29 thwarting defending champion Biruktayit Degefa (ETH) quest for her fourth victory (a historic feat in Houston’s race history). Degefa did take second with a time of 2:24:47. The win by Merachi was the 14th consecutive win by an Ethiopian woman in Houston. Canadian Mandi Elinore was third setting a Canadian national record finishing in 2:24:50.
The men’s marathon was won by Woldeargay Kekile Gezahegn in what started as a potential course record and then became a two man race. The Ethiopians win gave the African nation three of the four Houston titles. Bronsa Dida was left behind by countryman who won in 2:08:36 more then two minutes faster.
Michael Roeger (AUS), a T46 Paralympian, crushed his own world record (2:22:51) finishing in 2:19:33 keeping his pre-race promise to “put his competitors on notice” heading into the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
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