The Berlin Marathon’s Golden Jubilee
The Berlin Marathon celebrated its 50th birthday in style, becoming the largest marathon in history from both a spectator and participant point of view. Tigist Ketema and Milkesa Mengesha took top honours at the Golden Jubilee race in yet another instance of young stars ditching a long track career in favour of taking on the marathon.
Elite Women
I’ll be honest – Tigist Ketema hasn’t left me with much to write here. The Ethiopian came to Berlin with a personal best almost two minutes faster than her closest competitor and will leave the city having won this race by an even bigger margin.
Azmera Gebru was the only woman within a minute of Ketema at halfway (Gebru went on to drop out after 30km), and the gaps just grew from there. With a few male pacemakers for company, Ketema ticked off a barrage of metronomic splits in the second half of the race, which only served to extend her lead over her rivals. Crossing the line in 2:16:42, Ketema is now the only woman in history to have broken 2:17 more than once in the same year. Not bad for someone who made their debut in January.
Mestawot Fikir crossed the line in second in 2:18:48, and Bosena Mulatie completed an Ethiopian sweep in 2:19:00.
Ethiopia has now won the women’s race at the Berlin Marathon five years in a row, their longest-ever winning streak in any World Marathon Major.
Tigist Ketema wins the 2024 Berlin Marathon
Elite Men
The story could not have been more different in the men’s race. A group of 12 passed through halfway just inside 61 minutes, which was particularly impressive given nobody in the field had ever come close to breaking 2:03.
The pacemakers stepped off soon thereafter, which prompted Kibiwott Kandie to mount an aggressive move that caused less drama than a distance runner in a powerlifting competition – in the end, he probably did more damage to himself than anyone else. The former half marathon world record holder won’t be in any hurry to remember this weekend: Kandie was delayed overnight in Istanbul on his way to Berlin, missed his bottle at the most crucial aid station on the course, and ultimately finished 13th, more than three minutes behind the winner.
Seven men passed through 35km together, but only four would survive to 40km. Haymanot Alew was the first from the quartet to fade but would soon be joined by Stephen Kiprop as Milkesa Mengesha and CyBrian Kotut pushed towards the Brandenburg Gate.
With 400m to run, Mengesha found a gap on his Kenyan rival, which he would hold until the finish to win his first World Marathon Major in 2:03:17. Kotut came across the line five seconds later, with Alew making a late move on Kiprop to take third. The first six finishers all ran lifetime bests.
If the names you’re reading don’t mean much to you, don’t be surprised – the average age of the top 10 finishers in the men’s race is just 25. In the last few years, a trend has emerged in which younger athletes bypass the track (or give up on it very quickly) in favour of racing on the roads. In countries like Ethiopia and Kenya, where talent is so deep, making a national team as a track athlete is basically impossible. However, anyone can sign up to run a big city marathon, and the rewards if you can make it onto the podium are much greater than winning even the biggest of track meets. So, many emerging East Africans are doing away with the traditional path of a track career followed by a marathon career and are simply skipping ahead to the longer stuff from the start. Not only does it make financial sense, but it also seems to yield better performances: Kelvin Kiptum was just 23 when he set the world record in Chicago last year, and Mengesha is only 24 – 15 years younger than last year’s Berlin Marathon champion, Eliud Kipchoge.
Milkesa Mengesha wins the 2024 Berlin Marathon
The Berlin Marathon is done for another year, which means Chicago is up next. Come back in early October for a detailed preview of the elite fields headed to the windy city.
You can find all the results from the Berlin marathon here.