M30-34: Ehlen dominates the San Francisco 10K with a 34:28 blitz

• Marc-Pascal Ehlen won M30-34 in 34:28 (5:33/mi), finishing 1:12 clear of runner-up Alexey Sergeev and posting the 2nd-fastest closing split (4.62M→Finish) among all men.
• Alexey Sergeev ran 35:40 to take 2nd — a sharp improvement on his 36:23 from this same race in 2023, when he finished 10th among the men.
• The top three — Ehlen (34:28), Sergeev (35:40), Stolle (36:05) — were separated by just 1:37, while 4th-place Kevin Sun (39:31) trailed Stolle by nearly 3:30, marking a clear break at the front.
• Sam Claver (44:29) and Chris Taylor (44:30) finished 15th and 16th in a field of 461, separated by a single second at 7:10/mi.

Marc-Pascal Ehlen made the M30-34 race his own from the start. Running at a 5:33/mi clip in San Francisco's cool, humid morning air, the 31-year-old not only took the M30-34 win but climbed from 3rd to 2nd among all men on the closing stretch — his final segment the 2nd-fastest men's closing split on the course. That kind of finish-line surge on a 10K is no small thing; it's the move of someone who had more in reserve and chose to use it late.

Behind him, the real subplot was Alexey Sergeev's redemption arc. A year ago at this same race, Sergeev crossed in 36:23 as the 10th-place man. On Sunday he came back, shaved 43 seconds off that mark, and stood on the podium in 2nd at 35:40. He held his men's position steady (4th to 4th) but his 4th-fastest closing split among men kept him comfortably clear of Guido Stolle, the Gouda-based 34-year-old who rounded out the podium in 36:05 — 25 seconds back but posting the 10th-fastest closing split in the men's field.

Kevin Sun's 39:31 (6:22/mi) for 4th was solid but came nearly 3:30 after Stolle crossed — the largest gap between any two consecutive top-five finishers and a sign of just how dominant the front three were. Victor Tran (5th, 41:07) and Yauheni Selivonchyk (6th, 41:38) led a tightly bunched middle pack, with seven finishers between 41:07 and 42:36. Further back, the near-identical 44:29 and 44:30 of Sam Claver and Chris Taylor made for the tightest duel outside the top three — one second across 6.2 miles.