We’re simply days away from the primary Abbott World Marathon Main of the autumn season, the 2024 Berlin Marathon, happening on Sunday, Sept. 29. The 2023 race was unforgettable, with Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shattering the ladies’s marathon world report in 2:11:53. Whereas there aren’t any marathon world report holders within the 2024 elite subject, the race is stacked with up-and-coming expertise able to steal the highlight.
The lads’s race
For the previous decade, the Berlin Marathon has been dominated by two of the best marathoners in historical past: Kenenisa Bekele (two-time champion) and Eliud Kipchoge (five-time champion). With each taking time without work after the 2024 Paris Olympics, a brand new champion can be topped in Berlin.
The highest contender is Ethiopia’s Tadese Takele, the quickest seed on this yr’s race. Takele completed third in Berlin final yr with a U23 world-best marathon time of two:03:24. A former 3,000m steeplechaser who represented Ethiopia on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Takele’s marathon greatest is over a minute sooner than his nearest competitor, making him the person to beat.
Difficult the younger Ethiopian can be a trio of Kenyans: Cybrian Kotut, Josphat Boit and former half-marathon world report holder Kibiwott Kandie. Kotut, who will seemingly be topped champion of the 2023 Amsterdam Marathon after the four-year doping suspension of Joshua Belet final week, has a private greatest of two:04:34 and enters the race with the second-fastest seed time. Boit, who is understood for pacing Kipchoge to his 2018 Berlin world report, will look to enhance on his 2:05:42 from final yr, when he completed thirteenth.
German followers can be cheering for marathoner Hendrik Pfeiffer, who had a podium end on the 2024 Houston Marathon and adopted up with a top-10 end on the 2024 London Marathon. He has a private greatest of two:07:14.
The ladies’s race
Though this yr’s ladies’s subject lacks a few of the largest names, like Sifan Hassan, Hellen Obiri or Assefa (who’re all recovering from the Paris Olympics), we might witness the rise of a brand new star. Main the cost is Ethiopia’s Tigist Ketema, who clocked the second-fastest time on the earth this yr with a 2:16:07 on the 2024 Dubai Marathon in January. Her time locations her ninth all-time in ladies’s marathon historical past and fifth amongst Ethiopian ladies. Regardless of her lack of expertise in marathon majors, if Ketema can match her private greatest on Sunday, the race is hers to lose.
Genzebe Dibaba, the previous 1,500m world report holder, hasn’t but made the influence within the marathon many anticipated. After working a 2:18:05 in her debut at Amsterdam two years in the past, she recorded a DNF in London and completed sixth in Chicago the next yr. Berlin’s flat, quick course fits her working type, so this could possibly be the race the place Dibaba lastly makes her marathon breakthrough.
Germany’s Melat Kejeta can be trying to rebound from her DNF on the Paris Olympics simply six weeks in the past. With a private greatest of two:21:47 and a podium end on the 2023 Tartan Properties Ottawa Marathon, Kejeta could possibly be a dark-horse contender.
There aren’t any Canadian males or ladies within the 2024 Berlin Marathon elite subject.
How one can watch
You possibly can catch the motion dwell on FloTrack beginning at 2:15 a.m. ET Sunday, with the elite race kicking off at 3:15 a.m. ET. Join a FloTrack account to stream the occasion.