Ghebreslassie bags men’s marathon title

Ghirmay Ghebreslassie of Eritrea won the first World Championships gold medal taking the men’s marathon title.

In two hours 12 minutes and 27 seconds on the streets of Beijing on the opening morning of these championships, 19-year-old Ghebreslassie became the youngest winner of any road event in the history of the championships.

Ghebreslassie took the lead from Tsepo Ramonene Mathibelle of Lesotho on the 36km mark and saw off pressure from Ethiopian Yemane Tsegay for a memorable win at the Bird’s Nest stadium.

The silver medal went to Tsegay while Solomon Mutai of Uganda won bronze.

Favourites Dennis Kiprotich finished sixth, one place ahead of Lelisa Desisa, the two retaining the same order as in Moscow two years ago, but five places back on their one-two finish then.