Brillian Kipkoech breaks course record, Othmane El Goumri wins in Hamburg

Brillian Kipkoech crowned the 40th Haspa Marathon Hamburg with an unexpected course record of 2:17:05, smashing her personal best by almost seven minutes. Fellow Kenyan Rebecca Tanui was second with 2:18:25, and Ethiopia’s Kasanesh Ayenew took third in 2:19:39. Othmane El Goumri became the first Moroccan winner in the history of the event when he broke his own national record. In perfect weather conditions, he clocked 2:04:24 while Germany’s runner-up Samuel Fitwi achieved a rare national podium position in the men’s race. He improved his PB to 2:04:45. It was back in 1999 when a German male runner last achieved a top-three position in Hamburg: Carsten Eich was second 27 years ago. Kenya’s Kennedy Kimutai finished third with 2:04:56. 

After a relatively slow start with a 5k split time of 15:00 the pace in the men’s race picked up significantly. A very large group of around 20 runners stayed together deep into the race. They first passed the half-marathon mark in 62:04 and then reached 30k in 1:28:35. More than 20 runners were on course for a finishing time of under 2:05:00 at that point. It was not to be the day of two-time Hamburg winner Bernard Koech, though. The Kenyan suffered from hamstring problems, lost contact to the leading group and eventually finished 15th in 2:08:10. 

After an initial surge by Ethiopia’s Hunde Lechisa around seven kilometres from the finish, Othmane El Goumri, Samuel Fitwi and Kennedy Kimutai closed the gap and passed Lechisa, who had to settle for fourth place. El Goumri then pulled decisively away around two kilometres from the finish while Samuel Fitwi won the battle for second place. The fact that ten athletes ran under 2:06:00 showed the great depth of the race.

“My goal was to win the race. I actually wanted to run a bit faster and tried to push the pace a couple of times. But I am delighted with the Moroccan record,” said 33-year-old Othmane El Goumri, who ran his previous national record of 2:05:12 three years ago in Barcelona. 

Samuel Fitwi produced what was probably the best race of his career so far. “It was perfect. I am very happy that I achieved my goals: a podium finish and a personal best. The course is really very fast, and the atmosphere was brilliant,” said the 30-year-old German, who previously had a personal best of 2:04:56 and improved this by eleven seconds. With his new PB, he is third on the European season’s list. While Samuel Fitwi remains the second-fastest German marathon runner of all time, Aaron Bienenfeld’s debut time of 2:08:47 in 16th place saw him move into a shared tenth position in the national all-time list. He also became Germany’s fastest marathon debutant, improving the 2:09:32 by Arne Gabuis from Frankfurt in 2014. “It did go really well for me, and I have reached all my goals – but I also know what to improve next time,” said  Aaron Bienenfeld.

In the women’s race, a leading group of six runners initially formed. Similar to the men, the women also picked up the pace. When Kenyan runners Brillian Kipkoech, Rebecca Tanui and Marion Kibor passed the half-marathon mark in 68:42, they had already dropped their Ethiopian rivals. Shortly afterwards, Brillian Kipkoech, who had entered the race with a personal best of 2:23:56, broke away and then significantly extended her lead. “I never thought I could break the course record. My goal was to beat my personal best by a significant margin,” said 31-year-old winner Brillian Kipkoech. With her winning time of 2:17:05, she improved the four-year-old course record held by Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw (2:17:23) by 18 seconds. With this time, Kipkoech, who trains in Kapsabet and belongs to the group of new marathon world record holders, Sabastian Sawe, coached by Claudio Berardelli, is currently the seventh fastest marathon runner in the world this year. 

The fastest German woman in Hamburg was Tabea Themann, who finished eighth with 2:30:32.

A record number of 20,000 marathon runners registered for the 40th edition of the Haspa Marathon Hamburg. Adding other running events staged during the weekend organisers accepted a record-total of 46,000 athletes.

Results