Milkesa Mengesha and Tigist Ketema of Ethiopia win 50th edition of Berlin Marathon races

BERLIN — Ethiopians Milkesa Mengesha and Tigist Ketema won the men’s and women’s races in the 50th edition of the Berlin Marathon on Sunday.

The 24-year-old Mengesha finished strongly and ran a personal best time of 2 hours, 3 minutes and 17 seconds to finish ahead of Kenyans Cybrian Kotut and Stephen Kiprop in the men’s race. Haymanot Alew of Ethiopia was fourth.

Mengesha collapsed after crossing the finish line and wiped away tears as he was overcome by emotion.

The women’s result was clear long before the men’s as Ketema dropped her rivals before the half-way mark and finished in 2:16:42 – the third fastest time recorded in Berlin. Compatriots Mestawot Fikir and Bosena Mulatie followed in 2:18:48 and 2:19:00, respectively.

Conditions were perfect on a sunny crisp autumn day in the German capital.

A record number of 58,212 runners from 161 nations registered to run on the course where more world records (13) were set than any other. Another record was not expected this soon after the top stars raced at the Olympics last month.

It was the first Berlin Marathon without either Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge or Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele since 2014.

Kipchoge still holds the Berlin course record of 2:01:09 from 2022 – then a world record that was only beaten by Kelvin Kiptum with a time of 2:00:35 in the Chicago Marathon in October last year. The 24-year-old Kiptum was killed in a car crash in his native Kenya in February.

Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa set the women’s world record of 2:11:53 in the Berlin Marathon last year.