Eliud Kipchoge secured his fifth Berlin Marathon victory on Sunday (24 September) with Tigist Assefa taking more than two minutes off the women’s world record.
In his first race since finishing sixth at April’s Boston Marathon, 38-year-old double Olympic champion Kipchoge finished alone at the front in a time of 2:02:42.
Fellow Kenyan Vincent Kipkemboi was just over 30 seconds behind in second with Tadese Takele of Ethiopia a further 10 seconds back.
Within the first three kilometres, Kipchoge, Derseh Kindie and three pacemakers had opened a gap to the rest of the field with last year’s London Marathon winner Amos Kipruto in the second group.
By 10km, the leaders were already 16 seconds up on world record pace. That figure was as high as 23 seconds at 16km although it was down to 13 seconds as they reached halfway in 1:00:22.
At 26km, Kipchoge’s came out of his almost trance-like state to speak to the one remaining pacemaker, Hillary Chepkwony, as they dropped behind world record pace.
With just over 10km to go, Kindie fell behind the pace and soon stopped with Chepkwony following suit after bumping fists with his NN Running Team training partner.
In the women’s race, last year’s surprise winner Tigist Assefa and fellow Ethiopian Workenesh Edesa moved clear after 15km.
Edesa soon lost touch with Assefa who reached the half-marathon distance in 1:06:20, 39 seconds inside Brigid Kosgei’s split from her world record run in Chicago four years ago.
The 29-year-old, tracking her male pacemaker Azmera Gebru, continued to gain time as she moved to the brink of something very special.
Assefa looked full of running as she moved through the iconic Brandenburg Gate and crossed the line in 2:11:53, more than two minutes inside Kosgei’s previous mark of 2:14:04.
*Credit: olympics.com
