Wadhai strides to victory in women's 10km race

Fujairah: Yasmin Wadhai of the Abu Dhabi Striders hastily put together a group of enthusiastic runners from the capital to compete in the 10km race alongside the Fujairah Half-Marathon yesterday — and they went on to take top honours.

Iraqi Wadhai, who works for Bell Pottinger in Abu Dhabi, has been a road runner for more than a decade but yesterday's result was among her top performances as she finished the race in 49 minutes 43.23 seconds.

Russian Irina Smolova, awh lives in Fujairah, finished second in 52:56.52, while another Fujairah resident, Joan Stephenson, came third in 59:25.65.

"It has been a satisfying morning for me personally as I had raced in practically all the emirates except here in Fujairah," Wadhai told Gulf News.

"It's a very nice race to start with and I am sure it will get better with time. I enjoyed running here and I hope I can return for a better race next year."

In the men's 10km, Morocco's Yahya Bin Yousuf held off the challenges of Ethiopia's Yassin Kader and the UAE's Badr Al Arab. He won in 31:39.55, with Kader second in 32:05.13 and Al Arab third in 33:14.22.

"I could have definitely ended with a much faster time," Bin Yousuf said.