Guteni Shone rips Kolkota 25km record

Ethiopia’s Guteni Shone and Kenya’s Leonard Barsoton ripped up the record book at the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K 2019 as the pair set event records for the World Athletics Silver Label road race – the only 25km race in the world with such a distinction. Ethiopian compatriots Betesfa Getahun and Bayelign Yegsaw finished second and third
After a group of seven women had passed 10km in 33:37, Guteni started to increase the tempo and by the halfway point just had her training partner Desi Jisa for company. The Ethiopian-born Bahraini hung on doggedly for another couple of kilometers but by 15km, which Shone passed in 50:03, the 2019 Seville Marathon winner was starting to pull away from her rival.
Shone passed 20km in 1:06:00 with Jisa now 42 seconds back and the gap continued to grow over the final five kilometers, which was covered in 16:09, before Shone crossed the line in 1:22:09. Jisa hung on to take second in 1:23:32 with another Ethiopian-born Bahraini, Tejitu Daba, exactly one minute further back in third. The first five finishers were inside the former women’s event record.
Despite the Ethiopian pair of Betesfa Getahun and Bayelign Yegsaw surging and pushing hard over the final ten kilometers the same six – Barsoton, Getahun, Yegsaw, Uganda’s Felix Chemonges, Ethiopia’s Dagnachew Adere and Tanzania’s Faraja Damasi – were still more or less together as 20km was passed in 59:05. But with four kilometers to go, Barsoton pushed hard for home and the move proved to be decisive.
Barsoton threw in a final 5km split of 14:00, the fastest 5km of the race, to win in 1:13:05 with Betesfa Getahun, still with plenty of running in his legs despite his 2:05:28 marathon debut in Amsterdam less than two months ago, second in 1:33:33 and Bayelign third in 1:33:36.