Lemma improved his personal best by 40 seconds to win the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Gold Label race, in a time of 2 hours, 6min, 26sec.

Three runners entered the final kilometre together but it was Lemma who had the most left in the tank as he pulled away from Kenyan duo Lani Rutto and Alfers Lagat, who were second and third in 2:06:34 and 2:06:48 respectively.

Both the Kenyan runners also set personal bests, while fourth placed German Arne Gabius excelled in front of a home crowd as he broke his country's national record that had stood for 27 years.

His time of 2:08:33 shaved 14 seconds off the time set by Jorg Oeter in Tokyo in 1988 and the 34-year-old's effort was also the quickest by a European runner this year.

"I am very happy with the win, but I really wanted to run a time of 2:05," said Lemma afterwards.

Gabius, a European Championships silver medallist over 5,000 metres in 2012, added: "The second half was damn hard.

"Now I know what a marathon really means.

"There were times when I didn’t think I was going to get the record.”

Tollesa was a surprise winner of the women's race in 2:23:12 as Ethiopia claimed a clean sweep of the podium.

She took a massive six minutes off her personal best to beat Dinkinesh Mekash into second, with the runner-up credited with the same time after a sprint finish.

Koren Jelela continued her return after giving birth by finishing third in 2:23:52.

The three Ethiopians ran together after leaving the rest of their rivals behind just after 30km, before Jelela drifted out of contention 2km from home.



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