Ethiopia's Mengesha, Ketema win Berlin Marathons 

Ethiopians dominated the Berlin Marathon connected Sunday arsenic Milkesa Mengesha won the men's contention and Tigist Ketema claimed triumph successful the women's event.

Mengesha, 24, ran a idiosyncratic champion clip of 2 hours, 3 minutes 17 seconds to decorativeness up of Kenya's Cyrbian Kotut (2:03:22) and chap Ethiopian Haymanot Alew.

The past kilometer was an engaging conflict betwixt Mengesha and Kotut, but the Ethiopian stepped connected the state successful the last agelong and surged implicit the decorativeness enactment 5 seconds ahead.

"I had been grooming precise hard for this course. I knew it is precise level and I tin tally precise accelerated times," Mengesha said, speaking with the assistance of a translator.

"But I was astatine the London Marathon anterior to that and I had to halt aft 38 kilometers due to the fact that I had immoderate issues. I was precise disquieted astir that."

The pre-race favourite was Ethiopia's Tadese Takele, with five-times victor Eliud Kipchoge not competing. Takele finished seventh.

The women's podium was all-Ethiopian, Ketema's clip of 2:16:42 seeing her transverse the decorativeness enactment much than 2 minutes up of Mestawot Fikir and Bosena Mulatie.

Ketema opened up a sizeable pb successful the archetypal fractional of the tally and clinched triumph successful the third-fastest clip ever tally successful the event.

"I'm precise grateful to beryllium successful Berlin. I americium precise blessed and with the assistance of God I was capable to triumph this race," 26-year-old Ketema said.

Ketema's clip was 5 minutes slower than Tigst Assefa's winning effort of 2:11:53 past year, which is the women's marathon satellite record.

A fig of large names were missing successful the Berlin contention held conscionable implicit a period aft the extremity of the Paris Olympics.