Elroy Gelant produced a superb effort on Sunday, breaking the 31-year-old South African men’s marathon record in Hamburg, while Adam Lipschitz dipped under 2:10:00 in London.
At the Hamburg Marathon in Germany, Gelant took fourth place in 2:05:36.
The 38-year-old athlete, who finished 11th in the 42km race at the Olympic Games in Paris last year, ripped nearly a full minute off the national record set by Gert Thys in Tokyo in 1999.
Gelant, who obliterated his personal best of 2:08:56, also qualified for the marathon race at the World Athletics Championships to be held in Tokyo in September, dipping under the required standard of 2:06:30.
Meanwhile, at the London Marathon, Lipschitz took 12th position in the men’s race in 2:09:47.
Lipschitz was less than a minute outside his personal best of 2:08:54 which he set in Valencia last year.
Kenyan athletes dominated up front in the men’s races at the London and Hamburg marathons.
Sabastian Sawe won in London in 2:02:27 and Amos Kipruto triumphed in Hamburg in 2:03:46.
In the women’s contests, Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia secured victory in London in a women’s only world record of 2:15:50, and her compatriot Workenesh Edesa won in Hamburg in 2:17:55.
