Tigist Ketema and Milkesa Mengesha earn victories at the 50th Berlin Marathon
The 50th edition of the Berlin Marathon on September 29 saw an Ethiopian sweep in the men’s and women’s elite races.
Tigist Ketema dominated the women’s race, separating herself from the field shortly after the gun, and crossing the line in a time of 2:16:42. Mestawot Fikir was second, over two minutes back, in 2:18:48, and Bosena Mulatie rounded out the podium in 2:19:00. All three women are from Ethiopia.
In the men’s race, Milkesa Mengesha of Ethiopia held off Kenya’s Cybrian Kotut in the final meters, winning in 2:03:17 to Kotut’s 2:03:22. Ethiopia’s Haymanot Alew was third in 2:03:31.
Tigist Ketema makes a statement
At last year’s women’s elite race, Tigist Assefa shocked the world with a jaw-dropping 2:11:53 to smash the world record. This year, her training partner, Ketema, was the star of the show.
Shortly after the start, Ketema positioned herself in a crowd of male pacemakers, who were asked to clip away at 2:16:00 pace. The Ethiopian’s personal best coming into the race (2:16:07) was from her debut marathon at the Dubai Marathon in January. The time was the fastest debut marathon by a woman ever, and she seemed intent on improving on the flat streets of Berlin.
By the halfway mark, the only woman within a minute of her was Azmera Gebru, although she dropped out a few kilometers later. Ketema continued to build on her lead, shielded by pacemakers until the end, ultimately winning, finishing 2 minutes and 6 seconds ahead of Fikir.
Like Assefa, Ketema also comes from a middle distance background before moving up to the longer road races. The 26-year-old was the bronze medalist in the 800 meters at the 2016 World Junior Championships and owns a 1500-meter personal best of 4:00.91 from 2021.
Mengesha holds off Kotut on the home straight
The men’s race came down to the final mile.
There was no clear favorite going into the race, but many suspected Kenya’s Kibiwott Kandie, the former half marathon world record holder (57:32), would be a factor. The pacemakers took the field through the half marathon mark in 1:00:57, right on their target pace of 2:02:00. It’s become normal for elites at World Marathon Majors to go out aggressively, and this was no exception.
After the pacers stepped off around 73 minutes in, Kandie took the lead, stringing the race out, but he missed a fluid bottle around the 30K mark and struggled to hold onto the pack. He would ultimately fade to 13th place.
With 5K to go, five runners remained. In the last mile, Kotut took the lead, dropping everyone but Mengesha, who shadowed the Kenyan until turning a corner onto the long straight toward the finish just past the Brandenburg Gate. Mengesha, then, slowly made his move, inching away from Kotut and crossing the line with his hands in the air.
Mengesha’s time of 2:03:17 was a sizable improvement on his previous personal best of 2:05:29, which he set at the Valencia Marathon in 2022. He took sixth place in the marathon at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest and was an Olympic finalist in the 5,000 meters at the Tokyo Games.
Paralympic champs take wheelchair races
Marcel Hug and Catherine Debrunner, both of Switzerland, took comfortable wins in the wheelchair races.
Hug won his ninth Berlin title in 1:27:18, followed by David Weir in second (1:29:05) and Geert Schipper in third (1:30:33). Debrunner faced competition from Susannah Scaroni for much of the race, but she broke away with about 7 miles to go and took the victory in 1:08:13. Scaroni held on for runner-up honors, in 1:38:01, followed by Manuela Schär, 1:41:14.
Debrunner and Hug are both coming off titles in the T54 marathon earlier this month at the Paris Paralympic Games. The gold medal was Debrunner’s fifth to date, and Hug has now won the last three Paralympic marathon titles.
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