2023-09-24 17:47:58
BarcelonaBerlin is the land of records when it comes to the marathon. Every year, the Brandenburg Gate dresses up to welcome the best marathoners, those who want to take advantage of an ideal route, with few climbs, few bends and ideal weather, to surpass themselves. The 2023 event will be especially remembered, since the young Ethiopian athlete Tigst Assefa has achieved the world record with a time of 2 h 11 min 53 s, in a race in which the Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge won in the men’s category. who has won for the fifth time in the German capital and surpassed the milestone of the eternal Haile Gebrselassie. Berlin never disappoints, when it comes to the marathon.
Assefa, who was returning to Berlin to defend the title he already won in 2022 – then with the fifth best mark in history when he was just running his second marathon -, today he flew solo in the last kilometers and entered the finish line shortly after Kipchoge made history with his fifth triumph in the German city with 2 h 2 min 42 s, far from his world record (2.01:09). The previous women’s world record was held by the Kenyan Brigid Kosgei, with her triumph in Chicago with a time of 2.14:04. Assefa first ran a marathon in March 2022 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where she finished seventh. Now, however, he had been preparing the Berlin appointment for months and has entered through the big door.
At 26 years old, he has united tradition with modernity. A daughter of a land, Ethiopia, where the marathon is sacred, she ran in Berlin this year in the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 shoes, which cost 500 euros… and can only be worn once. They are the lightest competition shoes, which adapt to the foot before being recycled at the end of the race. In just the third marathon of his career, Assefa has debuted these shoes in competition, which he had already used in training. They have worked.
Kipchoge, the emperor to Germany
A few minutes earlier, Kipchoge had won the men’s category. A year ago, the Kenyan managed to break the world record, which he held himself, with a time of 2.01:09, thirty seconds less than his previous world record -2.01:39-, also achieved in the German city in 2018 Berlin, always Berlin. The route through the Tiergarten park, with long straights and few climbs, makes it ideal. In fact, this 2023 Barcelona will modify the route of the marathon and move it away from Montjuïc, partly due to the works on Plaça Espanya, partly to look for a route that allows better marks. In the Berlinese, come on.
The 38-year-old Kenyan athlete showed today that he has returned to form after an injury in the Boston Marathon, with his fifth triumph in six appearances in the German race. With this new triumph in Berlin, Kipchoge surpasses Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie, who won four consecutive times in the German city between 2006 and 2009, and adds to a record that includes two marathon gold medals at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2020, as well as a gold in the 5,000 meters at the World Championships in Paris 2003. Precisely in Paris, at the 2024 Games, Kipchoge will try to get a third Olympic gold. In addition, he also aims to conquer the six major world marathons. So far he has won in Berlin, London, Chicago and Tokyo. Boston and New York are still missing.
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