Chebet Tuei, 23 years old and a great favorite in the elite women’s category in the preview of the 96th edition of the largest urban race in Latin America.
As in 2018, the Kenyan Sandrafelis Chebet Tuei and the Ethiopian Belay Bezabh were crowned this Friday in the traditional San Silvestre de Sao Paulo race, which ended with five Brazilians on the male and female podium.
Chebet Tuei, 23 years old and a great favorite in the elite women’s category in the preview of the 96th edition of the largest urban race in Latin America, gave her opponents no choice.
From the start of the test on the emblematic Paulista Avenue, the main road of the largest Brazilian metropolis (southeast), the Kenyan runner opened an insurmountable distance, then covered practically the 15 kilometers of the race as a solo leader and ended up crossing the finish line with 50 minutes and 6 seconds, 14 hundredths earlier than in the 2018 edition.
With this new victory in the race that marks the end of the sporting year in Brazil, the Kenyan athlete completes a great second semester, in which she also won two half marathons, the Ijebu Heritage Half Marathon and the Edreams Mitja Marató Barcelona.
Ethiopian Yenenesh Dinkesa tried unsuccessfully to overshadow Chebet Tuei, but ended up reaching the goal more than a minute behind.
The novelty was that three Brazilians – Jenifer Nascimento, Valdilene dos Santos and Franciane dos Santos – occupied the other three positions on the podium.
The male category was much closer. A platoon of a dozen runners stood out from the start.
The group was progressively reduced and in the last kilometers it was already clear that the dispute was between the Ethiopian Belay Bezabh -winner of the New York half marathon in 2019-, and the Brazilian Daniel do Nascimento, who was preparing in Kenya in 2021 and had already been the best Brazilian in the last edition of 2019 (that of 2020 was postponed twice until this Friday due to the coronavirus pandemic).
Both were alternated in the lead, but on the famous and long-suffering Brigadeiro Avenue climb, shortly after the end, the 26-year-old Ethiopian picked up the pace and ended up crossing the finish line unopposed, with 44 minutes and 54 seconds. The Brazilian arrived 15 seconds later.
As in the case of women, men also broke African hegemony. In third place was the Bolivian Héctor Flores. The fourth place went to the Kenyan Elisha Rotich, who was the big favorite after winning the Paris marathon in October, and in the fifth place came the Brazilian Jose Marcio da Silva.
In the midst of the worldwide expansion of the omicron variant, the traditional São Paulo race, which includes all the modalities of professional and amateur athletes, was run with restrictions.
The number of runners was limited to 20,000, compared to more than 30,000 in past editions. In order to participate, the athletes had to present the vaccination certificate or a negative PCR test if they only had one dose. In addition, they had to wear a mask at the start and finish line on Avenida Paulista, and optionally during the tour.
There was no public at the start or finish, but during the tour people could be seen applauding and cheering for the runners, although without crowds.
As is customary, many of the participants in the general platoon ran in disguise. (D)
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