Milkesa Mengesha of Ethiopia wins 50th edition of Berlin Marathon

BERLIN (AP) — Milkesa Mengesha of Ethiopia won the Berlin Marathon in a personal best time of 2 hours, 3 minutes and 17 seconds. The time was yet to be made official on Sunday. Compatriot Tigist Ketema won the women’s race in an as-yet unofficial time of 2:16:42.

The 24-year-old Mengesha finished strongly to finish ahead of Kenyans Cybrian Kotut and Stephen Kiprop in the 50th edition of the race. Haymanot Alew of Ethiopia was fourth. Conditions were perfect on a sunny crisp autumn day in the German capital.

It was the first Berlin Marathon without either Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge or Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele since 2014. A record number of 58,212 runners from 161 nations registered to run on the course where more world records (13) were set than any other. Another record was not expected this soon after the top stars raced at the Olympics last month.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports.