ATHLETICS: Records tumbled for the second successive year in yesterday’s 31st Deep RiverRock Belfast City Marathon.
Ethiopia’s Urga Negewo returned to the event he won two years ago, to repeat his 2010 feat – and this time knocked more than a minute off the record, striding home on a wet and windy morning in 2:13:41.
Defending champion Joseph Chesire, who set a new Belfast record only last year, could only manage third place, in 2:18:09, behind fellow Kenyan David Kipserem Kisang (2:15:57).
The first local runner home, in 2:29:43 and eighth place, was Tommy Hughes, who was the last Northern Ireland athlete to win in Belfast, back in 1998.
The women’s race was won by another Kenyan, Alice Chelangat, who also set a new record of 2:39:02 – shaving 20 seconds off that set by Marashet Jimma in 2008. Russia’s Yelena Kozevnikova was the second woman home, in2:42:10, followed by Wioletta Kryza of Poland, in 2:43:57. Read More on IrishTimes