Kipsang beaten by Bekele in Berlin Marathon

“I did it.” The Kenyan finished 10 seconds inside his world record time of 2013.

The Ethiopian’s sensational display ensured Kipsang had to settle for second, despite shaving 10 seconds off his winning time of 2:03:23 three years ago, which represented a world record at the time.

Ethipoian Kenenisa Bekele (right) outran Kenyan Wilson Kipsang in the Berlin Marathon on September 25, in one of the fastest times in history.

“I was hoping to win it and run a personal best”, Kipsang said.

“Running at the top level, there is a lot of wear and tear on the body, especially when you are running for a time, but I am very focused on the world record”.

Bank of Africa will on Sunday organise an athletes’ seminar and viewing of the Berlin Marathon in Eldoret as Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang tries to reclaim the world marathon record from his teammate Dennis Kimetto.

The Oct. 9 race will feature multiple past champions, including 2015 marathon winners Dickson Chumba and Florence Kiplagat; 2012 victor Tsegaye Kebede; 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Micah Kogo; and debut marathoner and 8K world record holder Stephen Sambu.

This was another fast race over 42 kilometres, the relatively flat course lacking the cobblestones of London and the bridges of the NY courses.

Bekele made his move in the dying stages of the race, pulling clear of Kipsang as the pair headed towards the finish just past Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.

“I wanted to run my personal best here”, said 34-year-old Bekele, who was controversially not selected to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympics after missing Ethiopia’s qualifying criteria. By half way, the leading pack was more than a minute inside world-record pace.

“We both ran a fantastic race together and I missed him (Bekele) by a few seconds. Even though he just missed it, he will run it another day”.

Ruti Aga won bronze in 2:24:41. From there, she extended her advantage all the way to the finish, coming up just 15 seconds shy of her personal best of 2:20:30.

This was Kebede’s third title at the Berlin Marathon.

She led home a clean sweep of the podium for her country in dominant fashion, clocking 2:20:45 to finish more than three minutes ahead of Birhane Dibaba who crossed in 2:23:58.