2024-04-05 05:22:42
Berlin half marathon on Sunday
The hunt for the record
April 5, 2024 – 6:41 a.mReading time: 2 min.
On Sunday the capital belongs to the runners, because the Berlin Half Marathon is taking place again. The records will be attacked again in 2024 – and could fall.
It’s already a spring tradition in Berlin: 21.0975 kilometers through the entire city center, around 35,000 participants. A run along the Straße des 17. Juni, over Kurfürstendamm and Potsdamer Platz towards Charlottenburg Palace – to the ceremonial finish at the Brandenburg Gate. The half marathon, which will be held for the 34th time this Sunday, is part of the schedule of thousands of runners. The skaters start at 9:10 a.m. and the track and field athletes start at 10 a.m.
This year the field of participants is once again top-class: among the men, the two Kenyans Mathew Kimeli (best half marathon time of 58:43 minutes) and Daniel Ebenyo (59:04 minutes) are the favorites – Kimeli’s best time is only just above the course record his compatriot Eric Kiptanui from 2018 (58:42 minutes). And the record could also be shaky for women. Because Melat Kejeta from the Kassel running team could at least attack the previous record of 1:05:02 hours – at 65:18 minutes she is within reach of the mark set in 2022 by the Kenyan Sheila Chepkirui.
A soccer world champion has announced his involvement – and has set big goals: André Schürrle will also be running on Saturday. “Based on my training and for motivation, I set myself a time of 1 hour, 30 minutes. That would be very, very fast, but I’ll set myself 1:30 hours and then let’s see what happens in the end.” said the 2014 world champion, who ended his career in 2020, in an interview with Fitbook magazine.
Last year, Sebastian Saw from Kenya won the men’s event in 59.00 minutes, while Britain’s Eilish McColgan won the women’s event with a time of 1:05:43 hours.