Kenenisa Bekele put her name on the Berlin Marathon list on Sunday in the German capital. The Ethiopian traveled 42.195 kilometers in 2: 01: 41, two seconds of the world record, ahead of his compatriots Birhanu Legese (2:02:48) and Sisay Lemma (2:03:36).
With very little height difference and played in the wind, the Berlin event is the fastest of the season. The last seven world records of distance have also been made in Berlin, the last in 2018 by Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge in 2: 1: 39.
Kipchoge absent this year, he gave way to his rival Ethiopian Bekele. Three-time Olympic champion, the 37-year-old cross-country runner holds the world record of 5,000 and 10,000 meters. Sunday, he achieved the second time in history on the distance after a race perfectly mastered.
Note that we must go back to 1998, and the victory of the Spaniard Abel Anton, to find the trace of a winner other than a Kenyan or an Ethiopian.