February 7th, 2023

Bekele, Kuma, Abraha to Challenge at Dubai Marathon

As in the women’s race, it is Ethiopia that dominates the men’s elite field with a clutch of international champions set to fight it out for the title when the 2023 Dubai Marathon returns to the running fold on Sunday (February 12).

The elites and the masses face a challenging new 42.195km route that will take them from Expo City Dubai out on to some of the city’s most modern highways, past Dubai Investments Park and Jumeirah Golf Estates, before returning to finish in front of the iconic Al Wasl Dome.

While Tsegaye Mekonnen, the 2014 Dubai Marathon champion, boasts the field’s personal best time of 2:04:32, he will face a number of talented and experienced compatriots including 2022 Rome and Linz Marathon winner Fikre Bekele, former Rotterdam Marathon champion Abera Kuma and Gebretsadik Abraha, a winner in Marrakech, Prague, Guangzhou and, most recently, in Ljubljana.

Still just 24, Fikre Bekele – known as Fikre Tefera until a few years ago – has competed in just six international marathons during his career, winning five and finishing fourth in the other. While his first two wins came in 2018 in Vadodara and Bilbao, the following year he was the surprise winner of the Frankfurt Marathon where he outkicked his rivals with 300m to go.

Bekele returned to action after the pandemic in 2022 with another two impressive victories winning in Rome (2:06:48) before securing his personal best of 2:06:13 in Linz, Austria – on both occasions he smashed the course records.

Like Bekele, Abraha comes to Dubai full of confidence as his most recent race was probably his best ever. In October he won the Ljubljana Marathon in Slovenia in a time of 2:06:09, finally improving a personal best he had set a decade earlier.

Last year saw him run three marathons, winning two of them with that triumph in Ljubljana following on from victory in Lens in France.

Abera Kuma is another of the many Ethiopian world-class athletes who have made their marathon debuts at the Dubai Marathon. In 2014 he produced a fine performance in a top field and finished tenth in 2:09:53. He ran his second marathon in Berlin, where he improved by almost four minutes, taking third place in 2:05:56, which remains his second fastest time at the distance.

His big marathon victory came in 2015 in Rotterdam, a city where he also clocked his personal best of 2:05:50 three years later, finishing in second place just six seconds behind the winner.

Held under the aegis of the Dubai Sports Council, the Dubai Marathon will start and finish for the first time at Expo City Dubai. Runners who have yet to register and who would like to compete in the Marathon, the 10km Road Race or 4km Fun Run can still register up until February 11 only at the official website dubaimarathon.org.

The 2023 Dubai Marathon is supported by adidas, Dubai Duty Free, NORQAIN, the Channel 4 Radio Network, Al Ameen, the Dubai Sports Council, Dubai RTA, Dubai Police and Dubai Municipality.