By Haileegziabher Adhanom
Dubai 06 Jan 2024 – As the world of sport enters the Olympic year, the Dubai Marathon, the curtain-raiser major marathon event of the year, is set to pave the way for aspiring athletes to book their tickets to the Paris games. This year’s event will be underway on Sunday (January 7th) and has returned to its original fast-running course around Jumeirah Beach and Burji Al Arab from last year’s challenging Expo City routes.
Last year’s women’s winner Dera Dida (2:21:11) and second-placed Ruti Aga (2:21:24) of Ethiopia are expected to renew their rivalry once again. Since the 2023 edition, both athletes have been in good form and have registered better times.
The 2019 Tokyo marathon champion, Ruti, is the fastest entrant of the race after her incredible 2:18:09 in Dongying, China a few months back. “Last year it was a different and difficult course but this year we have a better route and I am prepared very well to win this race,” She said at the prerace press conference.
Defending champion Dera Dida on her behalf said, “I won last year’s race under difficult circumstances, not only because of the difficulty of the route but because it was also my first marathon after I became a mother. But this year, I have more time to prepare and I have a feeling to do even better.”
Both athletes are not hiding their intent to go beyond winning Sunday’s event. The goal is to have a good race and be on team Ethiopia’s list for 2024 Olympic games. This is an idea echoed by the event’s race director Peter Connerton, “The timing of the race is perfect to athletes who are eying to represent their countries at the games because it gives them the much needed time freedom to prepare well before an international event if they run good and earn a place at their respective national team on Sunday.”
Paula Radcliffe, former women’s marathon world record holder, believes there is little better way to start the marathon season at an Olympic year than running in Dubai, considering its overall circumstances around the event. “Dubai is always a great field coming together, extremely fast course with excellent organization and usually a very conducive whether conditions and it is dream build up for the 2024 Paris Olympics.”
Meanwhile, in the men’s race, the 2023 champion Abdisa Tola unfortunately won’t defend his title due to injury. However, many young athletes will battle it out on the roads of Dubai to start the year on top of the world.
