ATHLETICS – BAHRAIN’S Eunice Chumba claimed an impressive top 10 finish in the women’s marathon yesterday on the concluding day of action in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Chumba was one of three distance-running specialists flying the kingdom’s flag in the 42.2-kilometre road race. Tigist Gashaw and Rose Chelimo were the others. They finished 34th and 43rd, respectively.
Chumba had a strong start to the event, taking the lead after the first five-km split. The 31-year-old continued her strong form and was ninth heading into the final 10km.
She fell behind by one position towards the end and took 10th place overall in a time of two hours 26 minutes 10 seconds. Chumba was over three minutes behind gold-medallist Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, who won with a new Olympic record of 2:22:55. Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia followed as the silver-medallist in 2:22:58, while Hellen Obiri of Kenya claimed the bronze in 2:23:10.
Gashaw’s classification in 34th was in 2:30:53, while Rose Chelimo cocked a race time of 2:32:08 in finishing 43rd.
Chumba, Gashaw, and Chelimo were part of an eight-member athletics squad competing Team Bahrain at the Olympics. Two of the kingdom’s medals from Paris were won by their star track runners, including Winfred Yavi, who captured gold in the women’s 3,000 metres steeplechase, and Salwa Eid Naser, who bagged a silver in the women’s 400m.
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