Berlin Marathon 2009 Results: Haile’s 4th win!

The much anticipated duel between Gebrselassie and Duncan Kibet of Kenya, the second fastest marathoner ever, fizzled out early in the race with Kibet dropping out. The designated pacemakers for the run also dropped out by 32KM, and Gebrselassie was on his after that, and struggled to maintain his pace in the hot conditions. There may yet be a world record in this run, for the 30KM distance, but this is yet to be confirmed. The temperatures were in the range of 20 degrees Celcius, just 3 degrees off from the reportedly ideal temperatures for a record, 17 degrees, but probably at this level, small things like these probably make a difference.

Women’s event was also a comparatively slower affair, with Atsede Besuye of Ethiopia winning in a personal best of 2:24:47. Silvia Skvortsova of Russia finished second in 2:26:24 while Mamitu Daska of Ethiopia was third in 2.26:38, in what was her marathon debut. The timings were a far cry from the Women’s world record time, the spectacular 2:15:25 of Paula Radcliffe.

As Gebrselassie put it later on ”It was warm out there, not really marathon weather. It was too hot for a new world record, but I am happy with the time, it’s fine“.

A record 40,923 runners from 122 countries participated in the event, which is an IAAF Gold Label race, and also voted the marathon of the decade.

Results for the elite runners below. To see the complete championchip results, check out the results website, mikatiming.de.