Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge breaks own world record in Berlin Marathon victory

Christoph Soeder/AP

Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge broke his own world record, decreasing the mark to 2:01:09, as he powered to victory on the Berlin Marathon on Sunday.

Shaving 30 seconds off the record he set on the identical occasion 4 years in the past, Kipchoge set a tempo that nobody may match over your complete 26.2 miles and secured his fifteenth profession marathon win out of simply 17 begins.

Ethiopia’s Andamlak Belihu and defending champion Guye Adola stayed with the 37-year-old for the primary half of the race however dropped away as Kipchoge pressed on for victory and ultimately crossed the end line reverse the Brandenburg Gate alone.

Double Olympic champion Kipchoge grew to become the primary athlete to run a marathon distance in below two hours in Vienna in 2019 however this was not acknowledged as an official world record because it was set with a staff of rotating pacemakers and never in open competitors.

For this official record, Kipchoge began quick, setting a 10km time break up of simply 28min 23sec and reaching the midway mark in below an hour.

Adola matched him step for step all through the opening ten kilometers however solely Belihu may stay with Kipchoge because the race crossed midway.

After 25km, Kipchoge started to drag away from Belihu too, and although his blistering tempo slowed barely, he remained comfortably forward of the world record all the way in which to the road.

His compatriot Mark Korir completed greater than 4 minutes afterwards, in 2:05:58, to take second place whereas Ethiopia’s Tadu Abate accomplished the rostrum with a time of two:06:28.

In the ladies’s race, Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa set a course record and took the win in 2:15:37, the third quickest time in historical past and 18 minutes sooner than her earlier private greatest.

Starting simply her second marathon after making the swap from the 800m, Assefa ran 1:08:13 to stay with the pack for the primary half of the race, earlier than she recorded a unfavorable break up of 1:07:25 to distance the remainder of the sector.

Rosemary Wanjiru of Kenya completed second with a time of two:18:00, whereas Ethiopia’s Tigist Abayechew completed three seconds later in third place.