Cape Town Marathon champion Mohamed Esa won admirers after waiting at the finish line to congratulate fellow runners, including his idol Eliud Kipchoge.
Ethiopia’s Mohamed Esa described his record-breaking victory at the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon as a triumph for African running after producing the fastest marathon ever run on the continent on Sunday.
Esa stormed to victory in 2:04:55, obliterating the previous course record by more than three minutes in a race that underlined the growing stature of the Cape Town event as it pushes towards Abbott World Marathon Major status. But despite shattering the course mark and becoming the first athlete to dip below 2:05 on African soil, Esa insisted afterwards that winning in Africa mattered more than the time on the clock.
“To be honest, I was not thinking about the course record today, because my target was to win the race in my African homeland,” said Esa.
“I would like to say thank you very much to the race organisers, for giving me a chance to come here and to race on African soil. The win was the priority, and I was not targeting the course record, but I am really happy that I could do both today.”
