Sabastian Sawe to race the 2025 Berlin Marathon in September

Kenyan marathon runner Sabastian Sawe will race the BMW Berlin Marathon on September 21, as announced by the organizers today. A total of 13 world records have been broken during the history of the Berlin Marathon, which will see the 51st edition this year.

Thirty-year-old Sawe is the current World Half Marathon Champion. He will be running his third race at the classic distance in Berlin. Sawe clocked a sensational 2:02:05 in his debut in Valencia in December 2024, which made him the fifth-fastest marathon runner of all time. His time remained as the world lead for 2024, and it was the second-fastest marathon debut ever. This spring, Sawe also won the equally competitive London Marathon in a time of 2:02:27, recording the tenth-fastest performance all-time. The Kenyan may well attack his personal record on Berlin’s fast course.

“We are delighted that Sebastian Sawe recognizes the BMW Berlin Marathon and its flat course. He has already impressed on Berlin’s roads when he took the Generali Berlin Half Marathon in 2023. The race will certainly be exciting,” said Race Director Mark Milde.

As usual, Sawe is expected to face a deep field in Berlin. His challengers include the defending champion, Milkesa Mengesha and Tanzania’s marathon record holder, Gabriel Geay. Mengesha triumphed somewhat surprisingly a year ago with a personal best of 2:03:17 at the 50th anniversary of the race. Geay improved his time to 2:03:00 three years ago in Valencia. After a weaker year in 2024, he bounced back in February with a victory in Daegu (South Korea) in 2:05:20.

Jürgen Lock, Managing Director of marathon organizer SCC EVENTS, said, “No other race in the world has set as many world records as Berlin since 1998. As co-founders of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, we are setting standards.”

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