Adola Wins Berlin Marathon But Fails In World Record Attempt

Ethiopia’s Guye Adola staved off a surprise challenge from Bethwel Yego to win an enthralling Berlin marathon this morning, but missed out on his bid to set a new world record.

Prior to the race, Adola and his fellow Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele had set their sights on breaking Eliud Kipchoge’s leading marathon mark of 2hr 01min 39 sec along the flat, inner-city course.

Instead, Adola became embroiled in a classic tussle with 28-year-old Yegon, and needed until the final mile of the damp course to shake off his last surviving rival and cross the line in 2:05:45.

Bekele, who missed out on the then-world record by six seconds when he won the 2016 Berlin Marathon, came home third in a time 2:06:47.

Bekele is one of the greatest distance runners of all time with multiple world and Olympic gold medals in both 5,000 metres and 10,000m to his name.

Gotytom Gebreslase  of Ethiopia won the women’s race in her first ever official marathon, clocking 2:20:09.

She was followed  by fellow countrywomen Hiwot Gebrekidan and Helen Tola as the East African nation completed a clean sweep of the podium places.