Rainhold, Armas survive elements

Namibia’s Tomas Rainhold survived sweltering hot conditions and high humidity in Budapest to end 54th in the men’s marathon at the World Athletics Championships yesterday.

Rainhold, 32, completed the distance in 2 hours 23 minutes 36 seconds.

Of the 72 men that started the race, 18 did not finish the grueling race.

Gold in the men’s race was won by 23-year-old Victor Kiplangat of Uganda (2:08:53) with Maru Teferi, an Ethiopian-born Israeli, taking silver in 2:09:12 and Leul Gebresilase of Ethiopia (2:09:19) taking bronze.

With the temperature at about 25 degrees and a humidity of 65 percent at the finish, championship organisers reduced the 10 km mass run that also began on the same course after the official men's marathon race at Heroes’ Square to 6 km “to protect the health of the participants”, Olympics.com reported.

• Alina Armas achieved a season’s best time in finishing in 49th place in the women’s marathon on Saturday.

The 39-year-old Namibian (2:40:49) followed behind Ethiopia’s winners of gold and silver, Amane Beriso Shankule (2:24:23) and Gotytom Gebreslase, one second later, while Morocco’s Fatime Gardadi took the bronze in 2:25:17.