Dublin Marathon 2014 Results: Men's and Women's Top Finishers

Kenya's Eliud Too took victory in the men's race at the 2014 Dublin marathon on Monday while compatriot Esther Macharia won the women's race ahead of local defending champion Maria McCambridge. 

Over 14,000 runners took to the streets of the Irish capital on Bank Holiday Monday to participate in the race with 4,000 representatives from 47 different countries, joining the 10,000 Republic of Ireland locals taking part, per RTE News.

With an international field returning to the race this year after financial difficulties saw them withdrawn in 2013, there was some real quality on show from the likes of Kenya and Ethiopia.

Indeed, Too's winning time of 2:14:48 was just under four minutes faster than Irishman Sean Hehir's winning time from last year.

Macharia just edged McCambridge by under four seconds in the women's race in a time of 2:34:15, over four minutes faster than the Republic of Ireland runner's winning run from 2013. 

Too's compatriot Paul Koech Kimutai came through in second in the men's race while early leader Dmitriy Safronov of Russia claimed third place.

Sergiu Ciobanu took the men's National Marathon Championship as he was the first local club runner to make it to the finish after he was third last year, per the race's Twitter feed:

Here are the results from a fantastic day of racing in Dublin:

Position	Runner	Country	Time
Position	Runner	Country	Time
Men's Race
1	Eliud Too	Kenya	02:14:47
2	Paul Koech Kimutai	Kenya	02:14:56
3	Dmitriy Safronov	Russia	02:15:12
4	Aleksey Sokolov	Russia	02:20:19
5	Sergiu Ciobanu	Moldova	02:21:01
Women's Race
1	Esther Macharia	Kenya	02:34:15
2	Maria McCambridge	ROI	02:34:19
3	Annelie Johansson	Sweden	02:38:54
4	Gemma Rankin	Scotland	02:41:09
5	Marina Kovaleva	Russia	02:41:54

Safronov took an early lead in the men's race and kept it for much of the way before eventually tiring and being overtaken by Too in the last quarter of the route, per the Dublin Marathon:

Ethiopia's Meseret Godana had the lead after 10 km of the women's race before McCambridge and Macharia swapped first spot in the second half.

Eventually, as the pair ran for the line, it was the Kenyan who had the superior pace and held on for the victory by a narrow margin.

It was thus a Kenyan double in the 2014 Dublin marathon as Macharia and Too both claimed their €10,000 prize money.

In the wheelchair race, Patrick Monaghan claimed victory in a course-record time:

Before the race, the 39-year-old McCambridge had expressed her confidence in her abilities, per Ian O'Riordan of The Irish Times:

"

Well I certainly feel I’m in the best marathon shape of my life. And I also feel like I’ve fallen in love with running all over again, that there is still some life in left me. Because I did go through some hard periods there, dark days really, where I struggled with the motivation, questioned if I had any future in the marathon, and got very disillusioned.

"

She certainly did not disappoint the home crowd on Monday despite only just missing out on defending her crown from 2013.

A men's and women's race of great quality, the Kenyan duo showed their excellence on the day to take the respective wins, and there was also plenty to be happy with from an Irish perspective after another top race in a thriving marathon event.