Dubai marathoners from the past. Ethiopians will likely dominate the wins this year.
Marathons are a sustainable way to explore the Middle East. We have the best marathons in the Middle East list here, some easy some extreme and ultra. But want to try the oldest marathon in the Middle East. In Dubai?
The Dubai Marathon is the largest mass sporting event in the Middle East, according to event organizers. It’s an annual road-based marathon hosted by Dubai, United Arab Emirates, since 1998. The marathon is categorized as a Gold Label Road Race by World Athletics. In 2007, it was announced that the 2008 marathon would become the world’s richest long distance running event in history, with one million dollars offered as a prize for a world record and $250,000 for first place for both men and women.
This year top cash prizes still attract the world’s best runners. Participants from the past claimed that while the architecture is beautiful, and the weather is great for Europeans looking for a bit more heat in the winter, but most of the race takes place through flat and somewhat boring scenery.
This year in the women’s race, it is Ethiopia that dominates the men’s elite field with a clutch of international champions set to fight it out for the title when the 2023 Dubai Marathon returns to the running fold on February 12.
While Tsegaye Mekonnen, the 2014 Dubai Marathon champion, boasts the field’s personal best time of 2:04:32, he will face a number of talented and experienced compatriots including 2022 Rome and Linz Marathon winner Fikre Bekele, former Rotterdam Marathon champion Abera Kuma and Gebretsadik Abraha, a winner in Marrakech, Prague, Guangzhou and, most recently, in Ljubljana.
And they face a challenging new 42 km route that will take them from Expo City Dubai out on to some of the city’s most modern highways, past Dubai Investments Park and Jumeirah Golf Estates, before returning to finish in front of the iconic Wasl Dome.
Wasl Dome, Expo Dubai
Still just 24, Fikre Bekele – known as Fikre Tefera until a few years ago – has competed in just six international marathons during his career, winning five and finishing fourth in the other. While his first two wins came in 2018 in Vadodara and Bilbao, the following year he was the surprise winner of the Frankfurt Marathon where he outkicked his rivals with 300m to go.
Bekele returned to action after the pandemic in 2022 with another two impressive victories winning in Rome (2:06:48) before securing his personal best of 2:06:13 in Linz, Austria – on both occasions he smashed the course records.
Like Bekele, Abraha comes to Dubai full of confidence as his most recent race was probably his best ever. In October he won the Ljubljana Marathon in Slovenia in a time of 2:06:09, finally improving a personal best he had set a decade earlier. Last year saw him run three marathons, winning two of them with that triumph in Ljubljana following on from victory in Lens in France.
Abera Kuma is another of the many Ethiopian world-class athletes who have made their marathon debuts at the Dubai Marathon. In 2014 he produced a fine performance in a top field and finished tenth in 2:09:53. He ran his second marathon in Berlin, where he improved by almost four minutes, taking third place in 2:05:56, which remains his second fastest time at the distance.
His big marathon victory came in 2015 in Rotterdam, a sustainable city where he also clocked his personal best of 2:05:50 three years later, finishing in second place just six seconds behind the winner.
Held under the aegis of the Dubai Sports Council, the Dubai Marathon will start and finish for the first time at Expo City Dubai.
Runners who have yet to register and who would like to compete in the Marathon, the 10km Road Race or 4km Fun Run can still register up until February 11 only at the official website dubaimarathon.org.
The 2023 Dubai Marathon is supported by adidas, Dubai Duty Free, NORQAIN, the Channel 4 Radio Network, Al Ameen, the Dubai Sports Council, Dubai RTA, Dubai Police and Dubai Municipality.
Author: Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist, innovation strategist, and founder of Green Prophet, one of the Middle East’s pioneering sustainability platforms. She has ranked in the Top 10 of Verizon innovation competitions, participated in NASA-linked challenges, and spoken worldwide on climate, food security, and future resilience. With an IoT technology patent, features in Canada’s National Post, and leadership inside teams building next-generation agricultural and planetary systems — including Mars-farming concepts — Karin operates at the intersection of storytelling, science, and systems change. She doesn’t report on the future – she helps design it. Reach out directly to [email protected]
