Ethiopian policeman grabs victory by just two seconds in grandstand finish to Hong Kong Marathon

Ethiopian crimebuster Dube Jilo was the most wanted man in Golden Bauhinia Square at the Convention and Exhibition Centre yesterday after narrowly winning the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon.

The policeman from Addis Ababa solved the tough 42-kilometre puzzle in the simplest way possible - sticking with the leading bunch throughout before sprinting to the front five kilometres from the end - to win in two hours, 23 minutes and 22 seconds.

The 30-year-old Jilo, who once beat famous countryman and Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie in his pet event, the 10,000 metres, was the centre of attention from the more than 10,000 runners who participated in the marathon, half-marathon and 10km races.

'It was a very difficult course and very tough. But it was no problem for me as no one was running fast,' said Jilo, who was more than 12 minutes adrift of his personal best recorded in 1998 when he won the Rome Marathon.

Jilo just held off a twin challenge from Zimbabweans Elijah Mutandiro (2:23.24) and Honest Mustalcani (2:23.42) in the home stretch to become the second Ethiopian to win the Standard Chartered Marathon, which yesterday celebrated its fifth birthday. The other three winners have all been from Kenya.

Jilo's win once again highlighted the stranglehold of African runners in long-distance events. Their dominance was overpowering yesterday. The top finisher from outside Africa was Andrey Naumov of Ukraine, who came in fifth in 2:24.23.