Gebrselassie and Mikitenko cruise to new records in the Berlin marathon 2008

October 1, 2008

The 35th real,- BERLIN-MARATHON in the German capital, which was held on September, 28th will be remembered for a long, long time because of several records that were broken in the event.
35.913 runners and walkers reached the finish line short behind the Brandenburg gate. This is an improvement of 3.300 finishers compared to last year and makes this years Berlin marathon the 5th biggest worldwide marathon ever (behind New York 05, 06 and 07 and Boston 96). Furthermore on no other course there have been set so many world records – Haile Gebrselassie’s 2008 world record was already the 7th in the history of Berlin. Counting the 10 fastest times of one marathon (and different years) together, Berlin regained the 1st place from London again (Berlin: avg of 2:05:33,6h vs. London: avg of 2:05:57,6h).

Men’s race

The race of the men started off fast from the very beginning. Apart from Haile Gebrselassie and his four pacemakers the lead group also included Kenyans James Kwambai and Charles Kamathi. The pace moved to world record pace quickly and stayed there all the way. The 7-men leading group went through the halfmarathon mark in 62:04min and after this point the pacemaker dropped out one by one. The last pacemaker could lead Haile and his last opponent James Kwambai until km 32. Charles Kamathi was dropped after 25km but eventually came home 3rd in 2:07:48h. It was not until km 37 that Haile was on his own and James Kwambai could not maintain world record pace anymore, coming home second in 2:05:36. Haile continued with the blistering pace and achieved his big aim of becoming the first human to run sub 2:04h. He set his 27th world record (20 official +7 inofficial distances) clocking 2:03:59h.

Also the German marathon runners used the perfect conditions (almost no wind, mild temperatures) and Falk Cierpinski improved his personal best once again, now being at 2:13:30h. Cierpinski ran to almost even splits for the halfmarathons (01:06:21+1:07:09) and got 9th place overall. Second German was Stefan Koch in 12th place overall. Koch also had a pretty perfect day. Although he ran most of the race alone after the pacemaker dropped out at around 25k, Koch clocked a negative split (01:07:59+01:07:39) to run a PB of 02:15:38h. Third German (21st overall) was marathonscene.com-man Erik Haß in 2:22:16 (1:09:52+1:12:18), who was on sub 2:20-pace until km 38 and then hit the wall, requiring 8:20 for the last 2,195km. Several other Germans (e.g. Christian Seiler, Denis Pyka, Jens Bormann) started out strong but hit the wall strongly or even had to drop out.

Women’s race

As by most specialist expected the women’s race was won by German Irina Mikitenko. However, the way she won the race was rather unexpected and surprised both spectators, race organisers and marathon specialists.

Early in the race the Ethiopian (Askale Tafa Magarsa, Shuru Deriba ) and Kenyan (Helena Kirop, Rose Cheruiyot) women set a high pace with Mikitenko applying a more defensive tactic. The lead pack started the first 10k in 32:49 (2:18:30-pace) with Mikitenko some 20 seconds behind. After Magarsa and Kirop passed halfway in 69:37 and Mikitenko in 70:05, Mikitenko started to close the gap and at around 25k she was in leading position of the women’s race. In the last kilometers Mikitenko could increase the pace and finished a new German Record of 2:19:19h. This means she is now the 4th-fastest women ever and the first German women sub 2:20. Askale Magarsa ran a top-class time of 2:21:31h to become second place, with Helena Kirop in 2:25:01h closing in third.

Second and third German’s in the women’s race were Dr. Susanne Bog (02:48:48) and Beata Baginska (02:48:56) in 15th and 16th place.

Lead results were as follows:

marathon men:
1 Gebrselassie, Haile (ETH) M35 02:03:59
2 Kwambai, James (KEN) MH 02:05:36
3 Kamathi, Charles (KEN) M30 02:07:48
4 Kipchumba, Mariko (KEN) M30 edCompany 02:09:03
5 Ademasu, Mesfin (ETH) MH 02:12:02
6 Ngolepus, Joseph (KEN) M30 02:12:07

7 Jitsui, Kenjiro (JPN) M40 02:12:48
8 Suwa, Toshinari (JPN) M30 02:13:04
9 Cierpinski, Falk (GER) M30 SG Spergau 02:13:30
10 Kiprop, Francis (KEN) MH 02:14:30
11 Limo, Andrew (KEN) MH 02:15:30
12 Koch, Stefan (GER) MH TV Wattenscheid 02:15:38
13 Nigusse, Tola Ketema (ETH) MH 02:15:45
14 Keiyo, Josphat (KEN) MH 02:18:06
15 Farsöht, Jeppe (DNK) M30 Herning Loebeklub 02:19:23
16 Wudage, Zevadia (ISR) M35 02:19:40
17 Achmüller, Hermann (ITA) M35 Südtiroler Laufverein 02:19:45
18 Bialk, Jan (POL) MH 02:19:53
19 Awada, Hussein (LIB) M30 02:20:36
20 Tola Debele, Gudeta (ETH) MH 02:21:31
21 Haß, Erik (GER) MH SV Vorwärts Zwickau 02:22:16
22 Gebremeskel, Kidus (ETH) MH edCompany 02:22:30
23 Whitby, Benedict (GBR) M30 WSE & HOUNSLOW 02:22:37
24 Takala, Miika (FIN) M30 Jyväskylän Kenttäurheilijat 02:23:19
25 Brunner, Georg (ITA) M30 Südtiroler Laufverein 02:23:45
26 Martelletti, Paul (NZL) MH Victoria Park Harriers & Tower Hamlets AC 02:23:53
27 Parchi, Noan Haim (ISR) MH Brooks Running Team 02:24:18
28 Ingraham, Todd (AUS) M30 02:24:27
29 Issa, Omar (LIB) M30 02:24:36
30 Nawrocki, Philipp (GER) M30 Aachener TG/ Takeda Team 02:24:49

marathon women:
1 Mikitenko, Irina (GER) W35 TV Wattenscheid 02:19:19
2 Magarsa, Askale Tafa (ETH) WH 02:21:31
3 Kirop, Helena (KEN) W30 02:25:01
4 Cheruiyot, Rose (KEN) W30 02:26:25
5 Vigovskaya, Gulnara (RUS) WH 02:30:03
6 Deriba, Shuru (ETH) WH 02:31:20
7 Lewandoswka, Edyta (POL) WH 02:33:00
8 Kimuria, Evelyne (KEN) WH 02:35:53
9 Cirlan, Daniela (ROM) WH 02:36:18
10 Balciunaite, Zivile (LTU) WH 02:36:40
11 Aagaard, Anne-Mette (DNK) W35 Copenhagen 02:37:04
12 Neuenschwander, Maja (SUI) WH 02:38:53
13 Worku, Tsege (ETH) WH 02:46:03
14 Erb, Esther (USA) WH Richmond-Va 02:46:15
15 Kvaeven, Wenche Laegraid (NOR) W40 GT International 02:48:40
16 Dr. Bog, Susanne (GER) W35 Ludwigshafen 02:48:48
17 Baginska, Beata (GER) W30 Berlin 02:48:56
18 Fan, Sui Ping (HKG) W35 Hong Kong 02:48:58
19 Qi Hui, Anne (SIN) WH adidas Team 02:50:23
20 Parits, Tina (AUT) WH HSV Kaisersteinbruch 02:51:11
21 Jaccheri, Elena (ITA) W40 Pisa 02:51:48
22 Wright, Megan (GBR) W35 Hunters bog trotters 02:52:37
23 Fox, Ella (GBR) WH London 02:52:53
24 Duus, Lene Kathrine (DNK) W30 Aarhus C 02:53:00
25 Laithwaite, Gill (GBR) W35 Carlisle 02:54:38
26 Steiger, Natalia (AUT) W30 LMB Mittelburgenland 02:54:45
27 Gelder, Emily (GBR) W30 London 02:54:58
28 Plaatzer, Heleen (NED) WH Nijmegen 02:55:02
29 Vielhaber, Felicitas (GER) WH TUSEM Essen 02:55:19
30 Perry, Victoria (GBR) W50 Altrincham Athletic 02:55:30

full results of the race results.real-berlin-marathon.com