Ethiopian dominance at the 50th Berlin Marathon was on full display as Milkesa Mengesha and Tigist Ketema won the men’s and women’s races on Sunday.
Mengesha surged in the closing stage of the race and posted a personal best in 2:03:17 as Kenyan Cybrian Kotut (2:03:22) and fellow Ethiopian Haymanot Alew (2:03:31) took the second and third spots.
He was locked in a fierce battle with Kotut and Haymanot at the 41km mark with Kenyan Stephen Kiprop (2:03:37) trailing the lead group. But Mengesha surged ahead as the competition neared Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.
Fellow Ethiopian Tadese Takele, the favorite heading into the race, finished in 2:05:13.
In the women’s race, Ethiopians grabbed all three podium spots — and fourth place — as Ketema won in 2:16:42 with a sizable gap over the rest of the field.
As she neared the halfway point in the race Ketema pushed the pace and opened a large lead over the nearest competitors and it was clear that she simply needed to maintain her strategy the rest of way,.
Mestawot Fikir took second in 2:18:48, while Bosena Mulatie (2:19:00) and Aberu Ayana Mulisa (2:20:20) were third and fourth, as the Ethiopians made a commanding statement in both races in Berlin.
According to race organizers, the 50th edition of the event featured its largest starting field every with at least 53,877 runners crossing the finish line. The figure pushes it past the 2019 New York City Marathon, which had 53,640 finishers based on totals posted by New York Road Runners.
This was the first Berlin Marathon since 2014 to not feature either Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge or Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele. Kipchoge holds the course record of 2:01:09 from 2022, which was a world record at the time. The mark in the marathon was broken a year later by Kelvin Kiptum in 2:00:35 in the 2023 Chicago Marathon.
Men’s top 10 finishers
Milkesa Mengesha (Ethiopia) – 2:03:17
Cybrian Kotut (Kenya) – 2:03:22
Haymanot Alew (Ethiopia) – 2:03:31
Stephen Kiprop (Kenya) – 2:03:37
Hailemariyam Kiros (Ethiopia) – 2:04:35
Yohei Ikeda (Japan) – 2:05:12
Tadese Takele (Ethiopia) – 2:05:13
Oqbe Kibrom Ruesom (Eritrea) – 2:05:37
Enock Onchari (Kenya) – 2:05:53
Melaku Belachew (Ethiopia) – 2:06:30
Women’s top 10 finishers
Tigist Ketema (Ethiopia) – 2:16:42
Mestawot Fikir (Ethiopia) – 2:18:48
Bosena Mulatie (Ethiopia) – 2:19:00
Aberu Ayana Mulisa (Ethiopia) – 2:20:20
Ai Hosoda (Japan) – 2:20:31
Mizuki Matsuda (Japan) – 2:20:42
Calli Hauger-Thackery (Great Britain) – 2:21:24
Yebregual Melese (Ethiopia) – 2:21:39
Fikrte Wereta (Ethiopia) – 2:23:23
Sisay Meseret Gola (Ethiopia) – 2:23:36
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