Double Ethiopian win in Paris Marathon

Mulugeta Uma won the men's race in the Paris Marathon and Mestawut Fikir took the women's title in her first outing at the distance to complete an Ethiopian double on Sunday.

Uma, the 26-year-old running just the fourth marathon of his career, pulled away from Kenya's Titus Kipruto with 2.5km to go and strode for home.

The Ethiopian's winning time of 2hr 5min 33sec sliced more than half a minute off his previous personal best of 2:06.07.

In the women's race, Fikir showed enormous promise in the first full marathon of her career as the 24-year-old overhauled her compatriot Enat Tirusew to win in 2:20.45.

Vivian Cheruiyot, the 39-year-old Kenyan who won the Olympic 5 000m title on the track in Rio eight years ago but was running her first marathon since 2019, appeared to be in difficulty at one point but recovered to take third place.

The route, down the Champs-Elysees avenue and through wooded sections, was very different from the course the Olympic field will follow in August, which will start at Paris City Hall, head out of the city to Versailles, and then return to finish near the Invalides memorial, which houses Napoleon's tomb.