Staff Reporter.
Ethiopia’s Guye Adola wins the men’s Berlin Marathon title on Sunday Tobias Schwarz,AFP.
Ethiopia’s Guye Adola beat a field including two-time winner Kenenisa Bekele to win the Berlin Marathon and take his first title over the distance.
The 30-year-old survived the brutal early pace to finish in two hours five minutes 45 seconds and hold off Kenya’s Bethwel Yegon and Ethiopian veteran Bekele, who was third.
Bekele, the 2016 and 2019 winner in Berlin, had been attempting to break his personal best when he came within two agonising seconds of Kipchoge’s time two years ago, but ended up settling for third as he finished one minute, two seconds behind Adola.
Adola’s compatriot Gotytom Gebreslase won the women’s race on her debut over the distance, the 26-year-old clocking 2:20:09 to lead home an Ethiopian sweep of the podium places.
Hiwot Gebrekidan took second and Helen Tola third.
Adola, who announced himself with a second place to world record holder Eliud Kipchoge in Berlin in 2017, was almost two minutes outside his time that day, the fastest ever marathon debut.
“The race started off really fast – the leading pack couldn’t maintain that pace, so I took my chance to hit the front,” he said.
The highest-placed Briton was Cardiff’s Matt Clowes, who ran 2:18:55.
Marcel Hug of Switzerland won the men’s wheelchair race in 1:24:03, and fellow Swiss Manuela Schar took her fifth straight Berlin title in the women’s event in 1:27:31.