Defending champion and course record holder Bernard Koech will return for the 38th edition of the Haspa Marathon Hamburg on 28th April. The 36 year-old Kenyan, who improved the course best to 2:04:09 last year, will face very strong opponents in Germany’s major spring marathon. Samwel Mailu of Kenya and Ethiopia’s Abdisa Tola, who both produced breakthrough performances in 2023, will challenge the defending champion. In Martin Musau there will be another former winner of the Haspa Marathon Hamburg returning to the race: The Ugandan was the winner in 2021.
The Bangsaen21 Half Marathon, a prestigious World Athletics Platinum Label road race hosted in Chonburi, Thailand, witnessed an exhilarating showcase of Kenyan excellence as Gladys Chepkurui and Mathew Kimeli triumphed in their respective categories under demanding weather conditions.
Belgium's Bashir Abdi, a world and Olympic bronze medalist, claimed his second Rotterdam Marathon victory by winning the World Athletics Gold Label road race on Sunday (16) in a time of 2:03:47. Tesfu and Chumba continued to run together up until 35km, reaching 1:55:50, but Chumba then started to open up a bit of a gap on her rival in the final few kilometers.
In a surprising turn of events, Scott Fauble, a prominent American marathon runner, has chosen to participate in the 2023 Berlin Marathon, despite initially not planning a fall marathon this year. His decision is a response to the intricate and somewhat perplexing qualification process for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, which has left many athletes, including Fauble, grappling with uncertainty
Very fast times and thrilling races are expected at the Haspa Marathon Hamburg on Sunday. Just a year after Yalemzerf Yehualaw set a sensational course record of 2:17:23, which at that time was an unofficial world debut record as well, a fellow-Ethiopian will be at the start line, hoping to smash the mark: 20 year-old Tiruye Mesfin announced at the press conference in Hamburg that she targets a world-class time of sub 2:17. Brazil’s Daniel do Nascimento is among the men’s favorites. The South American record holder wants to bounce back after disaster struck in New York in November. After taking the European marathon gold in Munich in sensational style last summer Hamburg will be the first race at the classic distance for Germany’s Richard Ringer. Around 12,000 runners have registered for the marathon event while the total number including shorter races is over 30,000.
Reigning 10,000m World Champion Joshua Cheptegei will close his 2023 season with a much-anticipated marathon debut on the streets of Valencia on December 3rd.
With the 2024 Aramco Houston Half Marathon looming on the horizon this Sunday, elite athletes are gearing up for a race that holds significance on various fronts. Renowned Kenyan runner Hellen Obiri, for instance, views the event as a valuable opportunity to assess her fitness level and fine-tune her training regimen ahead of the highly anticipated Boston Marathon in April. Meanwhile, American athlete Weini Kelati is poised to make her debut in the 13.1-mile distance, injecting an extra layer of excitement into the competition.
Kenya’s Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage has placed a one-month international travel ban on their athletes. On March 9, a letter was sent informing presidents of all Kenyan sporting organizations that their athletes will not be permitted to travel to international competitions for the “safeguard of the public and the country at large.”
Helen Obiri, a 33-year-old Kenyan and two-time World 5000m champion as well as a one-time world cross-country champion, triumphed in the 2023 Boston Marathon with a time of 2:21:38. Obiri pulled ahead of a group of five top women at the 40-kilometer mark, including American Emma Bates, to claim victory.
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.
