BERLIN, GERMANY, September 29 — A pair of rising Ethiopian stars raced to impressive wins in the 50th running of the Berlin Marathon. Twenty-six-year-old Tigist Ketema backed up her stunning 2:16:07 January debut in Dubai with her second career win leaving the field more than two minutes behind while clocking 2:16:48, the No. 20 all-time women’s performance.
Ketema led an Ethiopian sweep of the women’s podium with Mestawot Fikir finishing 2nd in 2:18:48, and Bosena Mulate 3rd in 2:19:00.
Twenty-four-year-old Milkesa Mengesha prevailed in a far more competitive four-man tussle to close out a 2:03:17 that made him No. 19 all-time.
Cybrian Kotut was the lone Kenyan to make the podium, finishing 2nd in 2:03:22 good for No. 20 all-time performer — testament to the explosion on the ATL in recent years. Fifteen of the men ahead of Kotut ran their PRs in or after April of 2019.
Ethiopian Haymanot Alewe crossed 3rd in 2:03:31 and Kenyan Stephen Kiprop 4th in 2:03:37 —- all four scoring massive 2-4-minute PRs.
Despite falling in the shadow of the Paris Olympics marathons, Berlin managed to attract deep fields of athletes ready, willing and able to chase history on its fabled course. Perhaps too willing, as a rambunctious pack of 15 racers blitzed the opening 10K in 28:42 (2:01:04 pace).
Kotut, who as it turns out is the youngest brother of Kenyan great Martin Lel (World Ranked No. 1 in 2007) and admits that “I destroyed my plan as I was supposed to run in the second [61:45 HM] group, but I saw that all my friends had gone with the first (61:15) group, so I decided, let me just go. If it is too much, we will all die together.”
Indeed, it was a bit much as three pacers and 11 racers pushed well ahead of targeted pace, crossing hallway in 60:57.
Mengesha welcomed the fast pace noting, “I had trained well and I knew from the outset that I was feeling quite strong. When the pacemakers got off at kilometer 25, I considered stepping it up but didn’t dare.”
Kibwot Kandie, No. 2 all-time in the half-marathon, was more daring and managed to keep the slowing pace fast enough to trim the lead group to seven at 35K (1:42:14, 2:03:15 pace). Moments later, Kandie himself gave out as his efforts were compromised by a 48-hour visa holdover in the Istanbul airport en route to Berlin.
The slowing pace…
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