By Roufan Nahhas
AMMAN (Jordan Times) – Ethiopia’s Habte Dibaba Robele was crowned champion of the men’s Ultra Marathon (48.7km) after clocking 3h05m leaving second place to Iraq’s Nouri Jaber with 3h05m39s and Jordan’s Salameh Al Aqra’ came in third place with 3h06m27s.
Robele, who took part for the first time in the event, was not able to break last year’s record registered by American Mark Werner, who clocked 2h58m36s.
Jordanian runners excelled in the 16th annual run of the LG Dead Sea Ultra Marathon (LG DSUM) held on Friday.
In the 42km race, Suleiman Zboun took first place with a new record of 2h11m14s, and left second place to Mithqal Abadi, who also registered a new record in this category with 2h12m33s, and third place to Hayel Rawahneh with 2h18m58s.
In the women’s category, Jordan’s Kholoud Atieh won first place with 2h51m39s, followed by Americans Maya Buchanan, 3h28m41s and Krysten Koehn, 3h55m56s.
In the men’s Half marathon (21km) Jordanians Ra’fat Qasem won with a time of 1h05m14s, followed by Hussein Momani (1h07m24s) and Ayman Ahmad (1h08m19s).
In the women’s race Canada’s Katherine Muckle won in a time of 1h01m52s, followed by Americans Tracey Villano (1h29m16s) and Erica Dueger (1h34m28s).
Jordanian’s also swept the men’s Fun Run 10km with Mohammad Abu Rizeq (35m1s) coming in first, followed by Majd Suleiman (35m5s) and Abdullah Saleh (356s).
Iraqi Ola Jasem (45m58s) won the women’s Fun Run. Jordanian’s Laura Diaz (51m41s) and Hoson Akeel (52m23s) came in second and third respectively.
In the women’s category, UK’s Sara Connor took the first spot, with 4h05m39s, followed by Naomi Ferguson, 4h06m33s, and German’s Anita Ehrhardt, 4h13m37s.
In the boy’s Junior Marathon (4.2km), for 6-15 year olds, Basel Riyad won followed by Basel Awad and Mohammad Abu Shileh. The girl’s Junior Marathon was won by Lyan Al Saheb, followed by Areej Al Saheb and Eman Audeh.
The LG DSUM, held under the patronage of HRH Prince Raad, the Chief Chamberlain, was organised by the Society for Care of Neurological Patients (SCNP) and had a record number of 4,500 runners.
Prince Raad, HRH Prince Mired and HRH Princess Majeda watched the annual marathon and expressed their satisfaction with the event which promotes the Kingdom globally.
The event ran from Amman International Motor Show at the Airport Road to Amman Beach at the Dead Sea, 400m below sea level, the lowest point on earth.
The sponsers were LG Electronics, the Greater Amman Municipality, Public Security, Civil Defence Department, Aquafina, Emirates Airlines, MEC, Jordan Television, Picasso, Kassab, Scholl, Moonlight for Tourism and Travel, Sawt Al Ghad radio station, Sunny FM, Grand Hyatt Amman, Layalina magazine, Cozmo, National Paints, AdDustour newspaper, Jordan Today magazine and Movenpick.