Press Release - Berlin Marathon - 7/13/23

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
	
                    BMW BERLIN-MARATHON on 24 September: 

               Eliud Kipchoge will run the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON

The best marathon runner of all time is returning to run the BMW 
BERLIN-MARATHON: Eliud Kipchoge has reached agreement with the organizers 
to compete in Germany's most spectacular road race. The 38-year-old Kenyan 
superstar will be running the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON for the sixth time. The 
double Olympic Marathon champion from his triumphs in 2016 and 2021 has 
already set two world records on this fast course, running 2:01:39 in 2018 
and performing even faster last year to take exactly half a minute off that 
time with 2:01:09. 

Both of last year's winners will be on the start line to defend their 
titles on September 24. The Ethiopian Tigist Assefa, who improved the 
women's course record with a sensational course record of 2:15:37, will 
also return to the Berlin race which forms part of the Abbott World 
Marathon Majors Series.

A year before the Olympic Games in Paris, where Eliud Kipchoge would so 
dearly love to become the first runner in history to win three Olympic 
Marathon gold medals, this exceptional athlete will be concentrating on 
re-establishing his pedigree in Berlin. His previously seeming 
infallibility has faltered as he suffered a rare loss of form in finishing 
sixth in the Boston Marathon with 2:09:23 in April, his slowest ever 
marathon in 20 outings. This was in stark contrast to 2019 when he broke 
the two-hour barrier for the distance in Vienna with 1:59:40.2, though the 
event did not conform to competition standards to count as a world record.

"On my road to the Paris Olympic Games, I like to go back to Berlin 
Marathon, since to me this is the perfect preparation. I have great 
memories there and I look forward to run the streets of Berlin again, 
together with the thousands of runners that will join," said Eliud 
Kipchoge. Victory in Berlin this year would make him the undisputed record 
winner of the men's title. At present he is tied with another running 
legend, Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, with four wins apiece.

Among his rivals will be Eliud Kipchoge's Kenyan compatriot Amos Kipruto. 

The latter won the London Marathon last year and possesses a high-quality 
personal best of 2:03:13. Kipruto has already competed against him 
previously in Berlin, finishing second in Kipchoge's world record run with 
2:06:23 in 2018.

Tigist Assefa also made headlines a year ago in the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON 
when the Ethiopian improved her personal best by a staggering margin of 
almost 20 minutes, taking it down from 2:34:01 to 2:15:37. This performance 
took Assefa to third fastest on the all-time list for the women's marathon 
at that time. Her priority on the fast Berlin course will be to produce 
another performance of undeniably world class quality and ensure 
qualification for the Olympic Marathon in Paris in 2024.

In Sheila Chepkirui she will face a leading contender and one of the fast 
rising stars among Kenya's marathon women. She finished in London this 
spring in an outstanding fourth place among a field of great quality, 
running a personal best of 2:18:51. Chepkirui should have fond memories of 
Berlin, having won the GENERALI BERLIN HALF MARATHON despite freezing 
temperatures in a course record of 65:02 in 2022. She will have to raise 
her game still further, however, if she is to win a place among the three 
Kenyan women to be selected for the Olympic Marathon.

More information is available online at: www.berlin-marathon.com 
                                
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