African runners break course records at Duesseldorf Marathon

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - African runners on Sunday broke the men's and women's course records at the Duesseldorf Marathon in Germany, according to the online RaceNewsService.

In the men's event, Ethiopia’s Seboka Diriba Tola ran 2 hours, 8 minutes and 27 seconds and improved the two year-old mark by five seconds.

He finished ahead of Duncan Koech (Kenya/2:08:33) and former Kenyan Abraham Kiprotich (France/2:08:35).

In the women’s event, Agnes Jeruto (Kenya) ran a great debut in fine weather conditions and finished with 2:25:49, improving the course record by 55 seconds.

Nastassia Staravoitava (Belarus) finished second with 2:27:24 while Melkam Gisaw (Ethiopia) took third in 2:27:50.

Some 4,000 of the 14,000 who entered the race, an IAAF Bronze Label Race, participated.
-0- PANA SEG 2April2012