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2012 Detroit Marathon results: Viacheslev Shabunin wins men's race, Liubov Denisova takes women's crown

Viacheslev Shabunin picks up the win a year after running with a heel injury and finishing second. Liubov Denisova wins despite suffering a hamstring injury near the end of the race.

By Michael Preston
Quinn Rooney

A marathon that crossed an international border saw two runners from Russia pick up wins in the Detroit Marathon today. After finishing second in last year's race, 43-year old Viacheslev Shabunin picked up the win on the men's side in 2:25.26. Fellow Russian, 41-year old Liubov Denisova won the women's race with a time of 2:46.33. Denisova is also a two time winner of the Los Angeles marathon. Both winners picked up a $3,000 prize.

The marathon took runners across the Ambassador Bridge into Windsor, Ontario and then headed to the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel to bring them back state side.

Shabunin out paced his nearest competitors by nearly three minutes as Girma Sengi from Ethiopia finished second with a time of 2:28.04 followed by Detroit-area native Travis Barczak who finished third at 2:28.14. Barczak ran cross country at Wayne State University in Detroit.

It wasn't quite as close on the women's side where Denisova picked up the win by nearly four minutes over American Katie Howry who finished at 2:50.37. The Wisconsin native finished ahead of Serena Kessler from Ann Arbor who took third with a time of 2:51.10.