By Metohuey Michael Adoglo
South Africa’s Stephen Mokoka broke the men’s 50km record in his first race at the distance.
The 37-year-old won the Nedbank Runified 50km (31 miles) in Gqeberha in 2:40:13, beating the time of 2:42:07 set by Ethiopia’s Ketema Negasa last year.
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Mokoka competed in the marathon at the 2012 and 2020 Olympics and 10,000m at the 2016 Olympics.
“I’m tired. It’s a long way, but I enjoyed it,” he said.
World Athletics added the 50km distance to the list of events for which world records are recognised last July.
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Ethiopia’s Amelework Fikadu Bosho dominated the women’s race to win in 3:04:58, almost four minutes ahead of second place but 34 seconds short of the world record.
Meanwhile, double Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge won on his Tokyo Marathon debut in 2:02:40, while fellow Kenyan world record holder Brigid Kosgei won the women’s race in 2:16:02.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of Africanian News.