Kenyan takes half marathon honours, whereas Amanal Petros breaks his German report and Likina Amebaw fees to girls’s victory.
The situations might need been cool, however the racing temperature was nonetheless excessive at an eventful version of the Generali Berlin Half Marathon on Sunday morning (March 29).
Within the males’s race, Andrea Kiptoo loved the largest win of his profession to date, hitting the road first in 59:11 however solely after his fellow Kenyan Dennis Kipkemoi, operating as a pacemaker, appeared to step apart within the closing strides.
Third place went to Amanal Petros, who broke his personal German report by 9 seconds with a run of 59:22 to complete simply forward of Swiss Dominic Lobalu’s 59:23, whereas there was an enormous private greatest for Frenchman Etienne Daguinos as he clocked 59:27 for fifth. Britain’s Phil Sesemann additionally clocked his quickest time ever, by one second, as he warmed up for subsequent month’s London Marathon with 61:21 for sixteenth.
Within the girls’s race, the honours went to Ethiopian Likina Amebaw, who led for almost all of the race to clock 65:07 and safe a 14-second profitable margin over Kenya’s Daisilah Jerono (65:21), whereas Veronica Loleo of Kenya was third in 65:35.
Esther Pfeiffer, operating just one week on from profitable the German half marathon title in Frankfurt, was fifth in 67:25, a private greatest by three seconds, whereas Sam Harrison was the main British finisher in eleventh with 68:38.
Hopes had been excessive that Petros may threaten Andreas Almgren’s European report of 58:41 however a run of ebbs and flows meant that ambition wouldn’t be realised. He was initially a part of the main group that featured Kiptoo, Lobalu, Michael Temoi and Ayensa Alemu however, as Temoi took them via the 5km mark in 14:02, the Eritrean-born German was displaying indicators of struggling.
With Kiptoo hitting the 10km mark in 27:50, after a second 5km of 13:47, the hole had grown as Petros got here via in 28:07. The main quartet turned three as Temoi fell away within the closing 5km, earlier than Kiptoo additionally started to drop Lobalu.
The determine of Kipkemoi all of the sudden turned much more outstanding, nevertheless, as he ran stride by stride with the chief and was displaying no indicators of letting up. Whilst they upped the tempo, the pair have been clearly having a dialogue within the closing kilometre earlier than the pacemaker determined, very late on, to not press his personal claims.
Behind them, Petros had rallied and put in a powerful late cost to make up floor, the world marathon silver medallist clearly nonetheless delighted to have damaged his nationwide report as he prepares for London.
Sesemann was additionally happy together with his day’s work and can now flip his consideration to the ultimate levels of his marathon build-up, with ambitions of going quicker than his private greatest of two:07:11.
“I’m going to push issues fairly exhausting,” stated the 33-year-old, who was adopted house by Jake Smith (twenty fourth in 62:07) and Marc Scott (twenty ninth in 62:50). “I don’t desire a strong run in London, I desire a actually good run so I’m going to take some dangers, push issues and hopefully step up my degree to a [marathon] private greatest. I really feel like 2:06 is feasible.”
Amebaw seemed in management all through the ladies’s race however solely put clear daylight between herself and her rivals within the closing levels. Of the British contingent, Harrison was adopted house by Charlotte Dannatt (twenty third with 70:42), Lily Partridge (twenty eighth with 71:24) and Natasha Phillips (72:11 in thirtieth).
Full outcomes right here
