Amanal Petros highlighted the BMW Berlin Marathon on Sunday (24) morning from both a domestic and European viewpoint by smashing his German record.
In a race won by Eliud Kipchoge for a fifth time in 2:02:42, Petros finished ninth in 2:04:58 to shave more than one minute from his previous national record of 2:06:27 and move to fourth on the European all-time list behind Bashir Abdi (2:03:36), Kaan Kigen Ozbilen (2:04:16) and Abdi Nageeye (2:04:56).
"I really enjoyed the atmosphere. The last two kilometres were wonderful, even though I was very tired. This race was very special. I was already expecting the time, although of course anything can happen in a marathon," said Petros.
Just behind Petros, his training partner Tadesse Abraham, the 2016 European half marathon champion, finished eleventh in a Swiss record of 2:05:10. And at 41 years old, his time was also a world over-40 marathon record.
Belgium’s Michael Somers also improved to 2:08:08 to finish 16th to squeeze inside the Paris 2024 Olympic qualifying standard by a mere one second.
Purdue clocks 2:22:17
After a spell on the sidelines due to illness and injury, Charlotte Purdue returned to top form with a ninth-place finish in the women’s race in 2:22:17 to move back up to third on the British all-time list.
Purdue ran near identical splits of 71:16/71:01 to move from 16th at halfway up to ninth, picking off the likes of Romania’s Delvine Meringor who faded to 12th in 2:23:25 having sped through the halfway point in 68:18.
Part of Germany’s gold medal-winning team in the marathon at the Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships last summer, there was individual glory for Domenika Mayer who was the top German finisher in 14th in 2:23:47, a lifetime best by more than three minutes.
And a second Swiss record of the day was set by former steeplechaser Fabienne Schlumpf who finished 15th in 2:25:27 to improve her previous mark of 2:26:14 and finish comfortably inside the Olympic qualifying standard of 2:26:50.