Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIAN Gabriel Geay proudly waved the national flag over the weekend after picking seventh position in the 42km marathon in the World Athletic Championship in Oregon, USA.
Geay completed the gruelling 42km race in 2 hours,07 minutes and 31 seconds behind the gold medalist Tamirat Tora of Ethiopia, who clocked 2:05:36, followed by Ethiopian runner Mosinet Geremew who clocked 2:06:44 and bronze medalist from Belgium Bashir Abdi who spent 2:06:48.
At the fourth was a Canadian runner Geoffrey Kamworor who recorded 2:07:09, and Seifu Tura of Ethiopia who spent 2:07:17. Following his success, the National Sports Council hailed him for the achievement through their official Instagram page.
Apart from Geay picking a place in the top ten, his fellow Tanzanian, Emmanuel Giniki, failed to complete the race. Geay proudly completed above his neighbour countries contenders from Kenya, Uganda and Burundi, who participated in big numbers compared to Tanzania in the marathon.
Generally, Geay fought well right from the beginning, bridging the gap with his from 21st place to second in the tenth kilometre. After maintaining his place in the top ten, he dropped to 15th in the 18th kilometre.
Geay did not lose faith, for he picked his strength and pulled himself to fourth place with an average splitting speed of two minutes and 54 seconds in a kilometre.
Geay kept his pace in the top 10 runners in five kilometres, which enabled him complete half of the marathon with 1:04:08 in seventh place.
In a kilometre, he elevated to sixth place before dropping to twelfth in the 23rd kilometre. Seeing himself pulled back six steps behind in just a kilometre, he gathered his strength back to third in just a kilometre.
Two kilometres later, Geay was pulled out of the top ten from fourth in 25th kilometre to eleventh in 26th kilometre. He kept dropping to 27th place in the 27th kilometre before regaining his strength and pulling up his socks in the 28th kilometre, where he bridged the gap with 14 runners and elevated to thirteenth place.
He maintained the spot for two kilometers before flying eighth in the 30th and 31st kilometres. Geay kept improving his place, where he climbed fifth and fourth in the 34th kilometre.
Geay’s pace was challenged by Kamworor and Seif Tura, who pulled him to the eighth at the 37th, 38th, 39th and 40th kilometres.
Geay attempted to regain the top slots and found himself climbing up to seventh place at 41st and 42nd kilometres with an average sprinting speed of three minutes and five seconds before he increased it to three minutes and two seconds in minutes to maintain his seventh place.
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