25-year-old italian marathon runner Eyob Faniel is the first Italian athlete to win the Venice Marathon in 22 years on Sunday, 22 October 2017.
He completed the race in 2 hours, 12 minutes and 16 seconds ahead of race favourites Abdulahl Dawud, Gilbert Kipleting Chumba, Kipkemei Mutai and David Kiprono Metto who were led along the wrong route by a motorcycle guide.
The leading group ran several hundred metres before being made aware of their error and turned back – losing around two minutes.
Faniel, who runs for the local Venice marathon club, was around a minute behind the leading group at the time but found himself leading the race along with Mohammed Mussa, who he immediately passed.
The Venice Marathon has announced that Faniel’s win still stands. What do you think?
