Mare Diababa wins Women's marathon ~the twins on the field !

In Tennis – the tall twins Bryan brothers stand tall in Doubles, current World No. 1.  Together  Michael Carl "Mike" Bryan  and  Robert Charles "Bob" Bryan make a formidable pair.   They first achieved their top ranking in Sept 2003. The brothers became the second men's doubles team to complete the career golden slam, through winning the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Estonia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe, bordered by the Gulf of Finland, Baltic Sea, Latvia (343 km) and Russia.  The territory of Estonia consists of a mainland and over 1500 islands and islets in the Baltic Sea.  Estonia is a democratic parliamentary republic divided into fifteen counties, with its capital and largest city being Tallinn.

Track and field world champions come in all shapes and sizes from the towering height of Usain Bolt to the diminutive 4 foot 11 inch (1.51m) Mare Dibaba, who took gold for Ethiopia in the women's marathon on 30^th Aug 2015.

Mare Dibaba captured the first women's marathon gold for Ethiopia at the world championships on Sunday, holding off Helah Kiprop of Kenya in a race that was settled by a 100-meter sprint. The 25-year-old Dibaba patiently waited for the right time to make her move, constantly checking her watch before breaking away in the shadow of the Bird's Nest. Dibaba finished in 2 hours, 27 minutes, 35 seconds, edging Kiprop by one second in the closest women's marathon finish ever at the worlds. Eunice Kirwa of Bahrain earned the bronze.

The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres (26 miles and 385 yards), usually run as a road race. The event was instituted in commemoration of the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens.  The marathon was one of the original modern Olympic events in 1896, though the distance did not become standardized until 1921.

The winner of Women’s event - Mare Dibaba Hurrsa is an Ethiopian long-distance runner.  Her first high profile outing came at the Ethiopian 20 km championships in 2007 and she took sixth place, running for Oromia Police. Mare briefly transferred to compete for Azerbaijan in 2009, running under the name Mare Ibrahimova, but after she was revealed to be overage for the European Athletics Junior Championships she returned to compete for her country of birth. Having reverted to her Ethiopian citizenship, she further established herself at the various runs.  Here at Beijing, Dibaba thrillingly outsprinted two other athletes to take top spot on the podium, the first of two victories for the East African country on the final day of competition in Beijing.

For all its long distance running pedigree, it was the first time Ethiopia had won global gold in a marathon.  Dibaba, who had set the fastest time in the world earlier this year, beat Kenya's Helah Kiprop by a second, while Kenyan-born Bahraini Eunice Kirwa claimed bronze.  All three had entered the Bird's Nest Stadium in contention, with Kenya's Jemima Sumpgong in close pursuit, but it was Dibaba who had the fastest finishing kick.

Defending champion Edna Kiplagat could only finish fifth, but Kenya did add to its gold medal tally later when Asbel Kiprop defended his men's 1500m title.

Like the Steve and Mark Waugh and Hamish and James Marshalls of Cricket, there are the Luik sisters.  Infact they are threesome ! - Estonians Leila, Liina and Lily Luik are identical triplets and two of them were in the event. 

Though they were the cynosure of all eyes, Liina Luik was placed 27^th and Lily Luik  was placed 38^th in the event.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

31^st Aug 2015.