Uzbekistan´s runners posted a strong showing in the Samarkand Marathon on Sunday.
Andrey Petrov was second overall with a time of 2:16:02 in the race, which is among the more high-profile marathons staged in Central Asia. Shokhrukh Davlatov finished in sixth place overall in 2:19:50. On the women’s side, Yekaterina Tunguskova was sixth in 2:43:13.
Leonard Barsoton of Kenya won the men’s marathon in 2:15:44 and Obse Abdeta of Ethiopia was the top woman to finish, posting a time of 2:39:25. The results were posted by marathon organizers and on the World Athletics website.
Petrov, 40, is a two-time silver medalist in the Asian Marathon Championships. He represented Uzbekistan at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, but didn’t finish the marathon there. After that disappointment, he successfully completed the marathon at the World Athletics Championships in 2019, finishing in 49th place.
Davlatov, 30, notched a time of 2:07:02 in the Valencia Marathon in 2023, breaking an Uzbek national marathon record that had stood for nearly four decades. He failed to finish the marathon in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Tunguskova, 38, represented Uzbekistan at the 2016 Olympic Games, registering a “did not finish” outcome in the women’s 10,000 meters. In Kazakhstan this year, she won the Turkistan Marathon and came second in the Almaty Marathon.
Dilfuza Allayarova, who finished the marathon in 3:28:34, has perhaps the most unusual story among the Uzbek marathon runners. She is a 56-year-old schoolteacher from the Tashkent region who took up running relatively late in life. In 2024, she won the Sydney Marathon in the 50-54 age category, finishing in 2:55:53.
