Why Casual Fans Should Not Bother Watching the 2023 Berlin Marathon
Every year, more than one million people run a marathon. Yet, if you ask the average person on the street to name a professional marathon runner, you will be lucky to hear a mispronunciation of “Kipchoge”. This is a problem for our sport.
This weekend marks the Berlin Marathon: one of the fastest and largest marathons in the world, the event will see upwards of 40,000 participants on the starting line on Sunday.
For spectators, this year seems to be about Eliud Kipchoge. The greatest of all time suffered a rare defeat earlier this year in Boston, and the big story being pushed is asking one question: can Kipchoge return to his winning ways to defend his Berlin Marathon title?
This is the wrong story, and it is coverage like this that is responsible for the lack of interest surrounding professional running. It is true that fanatics of the sport – such as myself, and perhaps many reading this – will be watching on Sunday. This is because we know that organic rivalries will arise on the back of the marathon’s dramatic nature, and because we are willing to sit at our screens for two hours in the hopes of a good race or a fast time.
The problem we have is that people who were not going to watch will hardly be convinced to tune in on the promise that an exciting race may or may not play out. Great sporting moments are built by epic rivalries, and the current landscape of marathon running denies us this prospect.
Boxing had Frazier and Ali. Formula 1 had Senna versus Prost. Tennis had the rivalry between the Williams sisters. What if money had kept these contests from ever being realised? This is what is happening in marathon running.
In recent memory, perhaps the most sought-after race to never occur was a face-off between Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele. In 2019, following Kipchoge’s world record performance of 2:01:39 the previous year, Bekele stormed to victory in 2:01:41 in Berlin. The pair have a history of racing against each other that can be traced back to 2003 when an 18-year-old Kipchoge upset Bekele over 5000m at the Paris World Championships. Since then, they have gone head-to-head more than twenty times, and it appeared inevitable that the road would play witness to the revival of one of track and field’s great rivalries, with both athletes seemingly at the height of their marathon powers.
However, since Bekele missed Kipchoge’s world record by two seconds in 2019, every time the pair have raced a marathon in the same season, they have done it one week apart and on different continents. Bekele is now 41 and on the brink of retirement, meaning fans will forever be left wondering.
So, how do we prevent this from happening again? The World Marathon Majors, which comprises the six largest marathons in the world, needs to change the way it structures its finances. Currently, the way they balance prize money and appearance fees only leaves space for two large appearance fees per race: one for a male runner and one for a female runner. If some of that money was redirected into prize purses, which not only pay athletes for placing well but also for running a quick time, we would finally see the best in the world clash on the same stage.
Alas, the 2023 Berlin Marathon will not be doing this. There are still exciting narratives at play, but this year’s event remains a shell of what it could be.
Kipchoge’s loss in Boston earlier this year was indeed a surprise. When most marathoners lose a race, spectators shrug and move on. Such is the brutal nature of the event that it is simply not realistic, even for the best, to have a flawless race every time. However, Kipchoge is not most marathoners. Before Boston, the undisputed greatest of all time had won a ludicrous 15 of his 17 career marathons, which made his April performance a genuine outlier. It also sparked doubts among athletics fans about his form, many of whom simply cannot believe how long the Kenyan’s reign has been. Kipchoge will celebrate his 39th birthday on November fifth (although many believe he is a few years older¹), and even he must acknowledge that he will not be able to outrun Father Time forever. Nevertheless, after setting a world record just twelve months ago – where he ran more than two minutes faster than anyone else on this year’s start list has ever run – only those with a very short memory would be bold enough to not tip him as one of the favourites.
If Kipchoge is to lose, it may very well be at the hands of his fellow countryman, Amos Kipruto. Kipruto has twice finished runner-up to Kipchoge, most recently at the 2022 Tokyo Marathon, where he ran 2:03:13 to put himself 11th on the all-time list. Other athletes to watch for are Kenya’s Jonathan Maiyo, the only other sub-2:05 runner in the field, and Ethiopia’s Andamlak Belihu, who has run under one hour for a half-marathon seven times in his career.
As much as I am looking forward to this event, it is not the race we should be watching.
Last year, 23-year-old Kelvin Kiptum ran the fastest-ever debut marathon, when he stopped the clock in 2:01:53 in Valencia. Earlier this year at the London Marathon, he beat his own personal best to run 2:01:25, finishing just 16 seconds shy of Kipchoge’s world record and moving to number two on the all-time list. However, Berlin has already used their appearance fee money on Kipchoge, which has left the door open for Chicago to use theirs to entice Kiptum to the windy city.
The king against his challenger, the veteran against the rookie. Kipchoge vs Kiptum is the race we should be watching. It is a timeless tale that has the perfect ingredients for an exciting contest, and it is once again a rivalry that the fans have been denied.
The story is no different on the women’s side. Of the five fastest women in history, four of them are still active in their careers: Amane Beriso Shankule, Ruth Chepngetich, Brigid Kosgei, and Tigst Assefa. After running 2:15:37 to shatter the course record by more than two minutes last year, Assefa is returning to the German capital to defend her title.
“I’m delighted to be running again in Berlin,” said Assefa during the pre-race press conference.
“Last year’s race proved an unexpected success for me. I think I can run even faster on Sunday. A further improvement would be a success.”
If Assefa is in the shape that she claims to be in, who will be her competition? The answer is nobody.
Shankule has already run her marathon this season, claiming the global title at the World Championships in Budapest last month. Chepngetich is scheduled to run in Chicago in two weeks, and world record holder, Kosgei, will be heading to the New York Marathon in early November. This means that the four fastest marathoners in the world at the moment will go yet another year without crossing paths. If you look at the history of these women, Kosgei and Chepngetich have only competed against each other twice during their careers, while Assefa and Shankule have never raced against any of the other three.
Tigst Assefa wins the 2022 Berlin Marathon in course record time
(Photo credit: SCC EVENTS/camera4_Tilo Wiedensohler)
Nevertheless, if Assefa has overstated her level of fitness, there are certainly challenges to come from behind. Kenya’s Sheila Chepkirui boasts the second-fastest personal best in the field (although it is almost two minutes slower than Assefa’s) and sits at number seven on the women’s half-marathon all-time list, meaning she will pose a genuine threat if she is still in contention over the final stages. Last year’s third- and fourth-place getters Tigist Abayechew and Worknesh Edesa will also be returning to Germany in the hopes of improving on their performances.
If you are looking to watch the 2023 Berlin Marathon, check here to see what the streaming options are in your country. But, until the World Marathon Majors bring together some exciting rivalries, I will not blame you if you choose to spend your Sunday a different way.
¹ If you Google Kipchoge’s age, it will tell you that he was born on the fifth of November 1984, which would indeed make him 39 years old this year. However, many in the running community, and even those who know him personally, question the accuracy of this date.
If you follow the sport closely, you know that this grey area regarding age is nothing new. For half a century, the best runners in the world have almost exclusively hailed from the rural countryside surrounding East Africa’s Great Rift Valley. Today, East African birth records are not very reliable; 35 years ago, they were all but non-existent – case in point, Kipchoge does not have a birth certificate. In fact, there is no evidence whatsoever that he was ever born – perhaps suggesting that he is actually a robot designed by an alien race specifically to run marathons (although this is admittedly unlikely).
African coaches quickly learnt that the lack of birth records could work in their favour. When it came time for their athletes to take to the international stage, they would often underestimate their ages so as to enter mature runners into junior competitions (notably, this is an arena where Kipchoge won global titles and set world records). The fact that Kipchoge therefore may not have been a teenager when he won his first senior title certainly does not detract from his incredible performance in 2003, and it makes his recent marathons (especially his world record from last year) that much more impressive. Of course, he may have just been an incredibly talented junior, and he really might be 38 years old. Truthfully, nobody – not even Kipchoge himself – knows exactly how old he is.