Unbelievable mass finish at Seville Marathon

Sunday’s Zurich Marathon de Seville saw one of the fastest mass finishes in history, with 30 men crossing the line under 2:11:00 (the only race to rival Seville’s mass finish was January’s Dubai Marathon). Sunday’s event saw winner Mekuant Ayene Gebre finish in 2:04:46, a new course record, second place go to Barnabas Kiptum in 2:05:05, and third place to Regasa Bejiga in 2:06:24.

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The race bills itself as one of the fastest and flattest marathons in Europe, and Sunday’s event proved this to be true with 19 men under 2:09:00 and 14 under 2:08:00. Gebre’s time was a huge personal best and the Adidas runner wore a pair of Nike Next%’s to run it.

I mean, just look at this clip. Looks like the finish of the mass race at any marathon, with a few people crossing every second or two, right?

Then look at the clock. pic.twitter.com/ONYteKvv5p

— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) February 23, 2020

In the women’s race Juliet Chekwel of Uganda won in 2:23:13, second place went to Gada Bontu in 2:23:39 and third place to Sifan Melaku in 2:23:49.

Olympic qualifiers

In March 2019 the IAAF (now World Athletics) released the 2020 Olympic standards, and they were shockingly fast. Like faster-than-ever-before fast. The marathon standards are 2:11:30 for men and 2:29:30 for women (minutes ahead of the 2016 standards). Marks that were considered impossibly fast less than one year ago, are now being achieved in unprecedented numbers. On Sunday in Seville, 31 men and 12 women hit the standard.

The 2020 Olympic quota for the marathon events are 80 women and 80 men. This quota assumes that roughly half of the runners would qualify by achieving standard, and the other 40 runners would be named based on their world rank. However, with more and more runners achieving auto-standard, it has never been more competitive to make a team. (One note: a maximum of three runners from each country can be named to an Olympic event.)

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Kevin Seaward

One of those Olympic standard runners was Kevin Seaward, an Irish high school teacher who shattered his personal best to run his country’s second-fastest marathon time on Sunday. Seaward crossed the line in 2:10:10, over three minutes better than his previous personal best.

Canada is expected to name their Olympic marathon team on May 4. Full results can be found here.

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