Challa Gossa and Stacy Ndiwa denied the defending champions at the 2026 Cali Marathon in Columbia on Sunday.
The combination of warm temperatures with slightly over 20 Celsius, very high humidity and an altitude of around 1,000 metres scuppered attempts to break the course records.
In a thrilling men’s race Ethiopia’s Gossa won with 2:11:49 after overtaking defending champion Evans Mayaka with around 250 metres to go on the home straight.
In contrast Stacy Ndiwa was well ahead in the women’s race. She clocked 2:29:55 while fellow-Kenyan Emmah Ndiwa, who is not related to Stacy, had to settle for the runner-up spot.
Including races at shorter distances, a total of over 20,000 athletes from 49 nations registered for the 2nd edition of the Cali Marathon. This is almost double the figure of the inaugural race a year ago.
More than 3,000 competed over the classic distance. The Cali Marathon is an Elite Label Road Race of World Athletics.
Despite two uphill sections in the first part of the race the pace after the 5 am start was fast and well within the 2:11:04 course record set by Evans Mayaka last year.
A group of ten passed 10km in a quick 30:23. Then the pace settled a bit, but it was still too fast for Eric Kiptanui. One of the prominent contenders the Kenyan, who has a 2:05:47 PB, lost contact to the leaders before 15km. Despite running alone for much of the distance Kiptanui still finished sixth with 2:16:27.
When half way was reached in 65:00 six runners and two pacemakers were in the first group.
Kenyans Evans Mayaka, Ezra Tanui and Ezra Kering as well as Martin Musau of Uganda plus Ethiopians Habtamu Birlew and Challa Gossa ran behind pacers Brian Kwemoi of Kenya and Mayko Geay, the younger brother of Tanzania’s 2:03:00 national record holder Gabriel Geay.
Tanui dropped back before the 30km mark and when that point was passed after 1:34:16 a course record was unlikely. The pace had slowed in the humid conditions and after Geay had dropped out earlier Kwemoi stepped aside. However the leading group of five stayed together until the 40km mark.
Defending champion Mayaka then made his move and Kering lost ground. But the course record holder could not drop the others and it was Gossa, who then moved passed him with the finish line in sight.
“I found the conditions much harder than last year, due to the humidity and steam rising off the roads,“ said Evans Mayaka. “After the pacers stopped, I tried a number of times to pick up the pace so I could break away, but my body was too tired so we stayed together until near the very end.”
“The conditions were very difficult so I decided to stay in our group and rely on my finishing speed. Once I saw the finish line I pushed and could tell that Evans was not able to respond,“ said 25 year-old Challa Gossa, who celebrated his first marathon win in Cali.
The Ethiopian was runner-up in Frankfurt in 2024 and has a 2:07:32 PB.
In the women’s race Kenyans Stacey Ndiwa, Gladys Chesir and Emmah Ndiwa as well as Nazret Weldu of Eritrea and Ethiopia’s Sadiya Awel formed an early leading group.
After they passed 10km in 34:35 the pace was picked up. While Chesir and Weldu were dropped the leading trio reached half way in 73:18. But as in the men’s race the second half was considerably slower due to the humidity.
When Awel stopped at a refreshment table at 25km to look for her bottle she then immediately sprinted to get back to the leaders. However this probably took too much energy from the Ethiopian, who lost contact to the Kenyans soon afterwards.
The duel between the Ndiwas was decided with around eight kilometres to go. Defending champion Emmah Ndiwa was unable to hold on and lost ground while Stacy Ndiwa continued to follow the pacemaker.
“My training had gone well so I was quite confident of winning and was hoping to run about 2:26. We were on pace at halfway, but I was getting tired, so we had to slow down,“ said 33 year-old Stacy, who was ninth in Boston last year with her PB of 2:23:29.
“After 35km I felt Emmah was beginning to struggle to keep up, so I pushed a bit harder and was able to get away and then hold my lead until the end.”
Selected Results – Cali Marathon 2026
Men:
- Challa Gossa ETH – 2:11:49
- Evans Mayaka KEN – 2:11:54
- Habtamu Birlew ETH – 2:11:56
- Martin Musau UGA – 2:11:59
- Ezra Kering KEN – 2:12:20
- Eric Kiptanui KEN – 2:16:27
- Carlos Mario Patino COL – 2:18:38
- Satiago Zerda COL – 2:18:38
Women:
- Stacy Ndiwa KEN – 2:29:55
- Emmah Ndiwa KEN – 2:31:01
- Gladys Chesir KEN – 2:33:59
- Sadiya Awel ETH – 2:34:25
- Cynthia Kosgei KEN – 2:35:22
- Nazret Weldu ERI – 2:37:49
- Mildrey Echavarria COL – 2:40:45
- Kellys Arias COL – 2:41:50
