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. The women's marathon was won by Irina Bogacheva of Kyrgyzstan in a record time of 2:33.44. She beat Russian pair Irina Safarova - last year's champion - and Natalia Volgina, who finished second and third respectively. The men's marathon began in dramatic fashion with defending champion Henri Cherono failing to turn up at the start line after being laid low by a bout of pneumonia. 'I fell ill on Friday night. I had to see a doctor who gave me injections but I could not recover in time. I am disappointed I could not defend my title,' said pre-race favourite Cherono from his hotel bed. 'We are disappointed that he could not run. It is a pity as we had specially invited him to come back so that he could defend his title. No one has successfully defended his title here in Hong Kong,' said William Ko, chairman of the Hong Kong Amateur Athletic Association. Cherono's absence was not noticed by the rest of the overseas field. Only countryman Charles Tangus, winner in 1999, knew he was out of the reckoning before Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa fired the starter's gun yesterday morning. 'Yes, I knew beforehand that he would not be running, but it did not affect my own race as we were all running our own races. There was no pacemaker as such,' said a tired Tangus, who finished seventh after failing to keep up with the strong finishing Jilo. The lack of a pacemaker and the lack of financial incentives to record fast times were probably among the main reasons why such slow times were recorded yesterday. Jilo's winning effort was more than two minutes behind Cherono's time last year despite the cooler conditions, and six minutes adrift of the winning time by Tangus in 1999. 'Unlike other marathons around the world, there is no bonus here to run a fast time. That is why everyone here runs for positions and not for time. So it should be no surprise that the race was run very slowly today,' said a top 10 finisher who chose to remain anonymous. Jilo was not complaining, however, after spiriting away the winner's purse of US$13,500. The police lieutenant was beaming after winning his third marathon in a 12-year career. 'I used to play football, volleyball and tennis before deciding to try my luck at running. The first race I entered was a 10,000-metre race and I won it. I decided to stick with running after that,' said Jilo. In 1989, he defeated illustrious compatriot Gebrselassie in a 10,000-metre race - one of the few times anyone has ever beaten the reigning Olympic gold medallist who has dominated that event on the international scene in stunning fashion for the past decade. 'It was a local championship in Ethiopia. That was the only time I ever beat him. Now no one can come close to doing that,' said Jilo with pride. 'I train with him occasionally as we both live in Addis Ababa.' At the Boston Marathon last year where she finished second, Bogacheva recorded her fastest time of 2:26.27. Although unable to match that effort due to the humid conditions yesterday, the 38-year-old gymnastics teacher broke the women's all-comers record with her debut effort in Hong Kong. 'It was just like a training run. I'm saving myself for the big races this year which may be in Boston and London,' said Bogacheva, who placed 14th at the event in the Sydney Olympics last year. Bogacheva lost her front-running position briefly around the 35km mark but soon regained the lead to finish almost three minutes ahead of Safarova. Jilo had a harder time winning, with the Zimbabweans pushing him right to the line. But the officer of the law showed he could sprint like Gebrselassie at the end of a gruelling race and got out of jail just in time, winning by a mere two seconds.