In the women's event the Ethiopian duo Aberu Kebede and Meseret Hailu came out second and third, respectively, at the 2015 BMW Berlin Marathon on Sunday. The winner was Kenyan Gladys Cherono clocking two hours 19 minutes and 25 seconds.
The Ethiopian Aberu Kebede finished second at a time of two hours 20 minutes and 48 seconds while Meseret won the third place with a time of 02:24:33. Another Ethiopian Tadelech Bekele finished third clocking 02:25:01. At the end Aberu said that she had all the opportunity to emerge winner in this grueling race. "Three of us were in front as the race was close to an end. I thought I would surge ahead in the final five hundred meters. My expectation was a clean sweep but unexpectedly the Kenyan ran fast in the last lap. This was indeed very disappointing," Aberu said.
The third placed Meseret also remarked almost the same thing. "I was behind Aberu when we reached the last 40 km mark. I was just following Aberu because she has a good finishing capacity. My plan was to surge ahead following her footsteps but unfortunately the Kenyan made a dramatic finish," Meseret said.
The big story at the 2015 BMW Berlin Marathon was Eliud Kipchoge winning in 2:04:00 despite running most of the race with the insoles falling out of his shoes. We've never seen anything like it and have a photo gallery below via our partner photorun.net. Message board poster "Tobi" on LetsRun.com reported the shoe problem 16km into the race.
Kipchoge with the win all but guaranteed himself a share of the $500,000 Abbott World Marathon Major prize, and doing it with his insoles falling out entered the ranks of mythological lore.
Afterwards Kipchoge told Reuters, "At some point they started coming out but I had no time to remove them. But when you run without soles there is a lot of impact. There was a lot of pain with every step."
Last month at the World Track and Field Championships in Beijing, Conseslus Kipruto's shoe nearly came apart after he hit the last water barrier but he only had to run 150 meters with a hole in his shoe and he didn't end up winning the race. Kipchoge's feat is definitely unprecedented.
Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge won the 2015 Berlin Marathon with a world-leading time of two hours, four minutes and one second despite being dogged by problems with his shoes throughout.
In the women's race, compatriot Gladys Cherono also set a world-leading time as she topped the standings in two hours, 19 minutes and 25 seconds.
The Kenyans had absolute domination in the men's race. His compatriot Kiptanui Eliud in 2:05:22 won the second place. Only the Ethiopian Lilesa Feyisa intervened to take the third place at a time of 02:06:57. The fourth place and fifth place were taken by Kenyans Mutai Emmanuel with a time of 02:07:46 and Mutai Geoffrey in 02:09:29.
Berlin was the favorite venue for Ethiopian legendary athlete Haile Gebreselassie who set two world records in the span of three years. His first record breaking win was in 2008 just 8 or so months before the Beijing Olympics. By then Haile was expected to get Olympic marathon but citing air pollution he withdrew from competing in Beijing.
The Chinese Olympic Organizing Committee made an official complaint to the Ethiopian Olympic Committee but Haile refused to change position citing medical problem. He said that he was asthmatic.
That brought the end of His Olympic participation history. Haile won gold medal in his debut in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. His second Olympics in Sydney in 2000 brought a very exciting and thrilling victory over the Kenyan Paul Tegat in 10, 000m. That sensational victory has never been repeated in the Olympics to this day.
