Patrick Makau of Kenya and Aberu Kebede of Ethiopia won today's 37th running of the real,-Berlin Marathon with fast times.
Makau, 25, and compatriot Geoffrey Mutai, 28, reprised their battle from the Rotterdam Marathon last April, finishing in the same order. Makau got the win in 2:05:08, two seconds up on Mutai. As such, these two men have clocked the four fastest marathon times in the world this year: 2:04:48 and 2:05:08 for Makau and 2:04:55 and 2:05:10 for Mutai.
Ethihopia's Bazo Worku (2:05:25) and Yemane Tsegay (2:07:52) rounded out the top-4. Athletes from Africa took the top-8 spots; the first Asian was Japan's Masakazu Fujiwara in ninth place (2:12:00), and the top European was Spain's Jose Carlos Hernandez in 11th place (2:13:46).
According to statistician Ken Nakamura, Berlin is now the fastest men's marathon of all-time based on the average of the best ten marks from the race: 2:05:10.
Women's winner Kebede, 21, was victorious by exactly a full minute over compatriot Bezunesh Bekele, 27, in 2:23:58, a personal best. Japan's Tomo Morimoto finished third in 2:26:10 and Germany's Sabrina Mockenhaupt got fourth in 2:26:21, a personal best by one second.
The real,-Berlin Marathon kicked off the final quarter of the 2009/2010 World Marathon Majors season. The next race is the Bank of America Chicago Marathon set for Sunday, October 10.
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