Ibrahim Mukunga Wachira won the Tartu Jooksumaraton with a spectacular fashion
Kenyan runner Ibrahim Mukunga Wachira was the winner of Tartu Jooksumaraton for the second year in a row. Unusually warm spring weather with temperatures reaching over 23 degrees in Otepää and Elva made the competion hard for most of the runners but not for Mukunga.
He was more than 6 minutes faster than others with a time of 1:13.30. Ülari Kais was second (1:19.47) and Raivo Alla (1:20.00) (both Estonian) third. As the course was changed a bit for this year and was about 120m shorter than before, Mukunga’s winning time is also the new course record of Tartu Jooksumaraton.
„It was clear from the beginning that we were running for the second place,“ said third man Raivo Alla. „I tired to stay with Raivo and was eventually a bit faster than him during the last couple of climbs. The course was harder because of the little change and also because of the hot weather,“ added second place man Ülari Kais.
Best female runner was Kaisa Kukk with a time of 1:31.23. She managed to beat her fierce Estonian rival Olga Andrejeva who finished second with a time of 1:33.48. Maie Kuusik (also Estonia) was third with a time of 1:37.24.
Total of 3668 runners and nordic walkers started today for the 34th Tartu Jooksumaraton, 1939 for the 23km distance and 1729 for the 10km run.
Next event in the Tartu Marathon Cube is the 35th Tartu Rattaralli which takes place on the 29th of May.