Singapore marathon champion Felix Kirwa bagged victory on Saturday during the 43rd edition of the Stockholm marathon in Sweden. 

Earlier, the leading trio of Kirwa, Berhane Tesfaye and Merhawi Keste were initially pointed in the wrong direction to run in the marathon. 

However, while this was promptly corrected, another mistake soon followed as there were no signs to indicate where the lead pack should run.  

Due to this error, they went straight on to where they should have turned. The organisers of the marathon blamed the error on motorcycle police officers who they say rode in the wrong direction. 

But later Kirwa broke away from a small pack of five athletes to build a big lead late in the contest and secure his sixth competitive marathon title in a time that is well off his PB of 2:06:13, set in 2017 at Eindhoven. Throughout his career, this is the fourth-best time despite the extra 1.1km he was forced to run. 

Merhawi Kesete of Eritrea followed home second after breaking away from the pack late as well to clock 2:11:45, with John Langat of Kenya sealed the podium places in 2:12:39. 

Berhane Tesfay and Eritrea’s teammate Samuel Russom rounded out the top five finishers with times of 2:14:42 and 2:15:39 respectively. The three were on the course to lower the record time of 2:10.10 that was set in 2019 by Ethiopian Nigussie Sahlesilassie. 

Wonderful race

The race director, David Fridell said, “We may not have made ourselves clear enough or the police overlooked something and forgot something. It’s terribly unfortunate. It’s been a wonderful race so far and they were on course for a course record. That shouldn’t happen again.”  

“I am very happy to win the Stockholm marathon. But we ran wrong and we missed the record because of it but I thank God I have won,” said Kirwa. 

He said that the race was tough but he had done good preparations.  

 “I must admit that it was really tough but I gave my best but I’m happy I did well despite the mishap,” said Kirwa. 

The win in Stockholm put Kirwa onto three marathon wins, winning the 2016 Singapore Marathon and 2016 Antwerp Marathon. In 2019 he was banned from competing for nine months after failing a drug test for the banned substance strychnine. 

In the corresponding women’s category, Ethiopia’s Tsige Haileslase finished on top in the women’s contest in her debut over the distance after clocking 2:31:48 and she will be aiming to build on the victory as she continues to improve. 

Three Kenya runners followed Haileslase home as Pauline Korikwiang made her debut in the event with a second-place finish in 2:32:18, while Mercy Kwambau (2:33:43) and Judith Cherono (2:34:42) came third and fourth respectively.