The Ethiopian Guye Adola won the Berlin Marathon this Sunday, in a career in which his compatriot Kenenisa Bekele, who finished in third place, aspired to break the world record of the test. Adola won with a time of 2 hours, 5 minutes and 45 seconds, entering in front of the Kenyan Bethwel Yegon and Bekele, winner of the test in 2016 and 2019, who He was looking at 39 years old to beat the record of Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge (2h01: 39).
In perfect weather conditions, the race he ran at a strong pace, but no athlete was able to maintain it in the last 20 kilometers. Until around kilometer 25, a group of four athletes, including Bekele and Adola, ran several seconds ahead of Kipchoge’s world record time, set in Berlin on the same course in 2018.
But the pace dropped when the last hare left the race, to the point of allowing the return to Yegon’s leading group, totally unexpected and who at one point flirted with victory five kilometers from the arrival. Bekele, who realized around the 27 kilometers that he could not aspire to the record, then tried to lead a tactical race to at least take the victory, but Adola was the strongest this Sunday.
The 31-year-old Ethiopian winner had already shone in Berlin in 2017, where he was second. This half-marathon specialist, almost unknown at the time, was then competing in his first marathon, and threatened the triumph of Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, who was 25 meters ahead at kilometer 40.