News Archive

Yoko Shibui became the fifth women in history to break the 2:20 barrier in

women’s marathon running. The 25 year-old Japanese won the 31st real,-

BERLIN MARATHON this Sunday in 2:19:41. Shibui not only broke the famous course

record of Naoko Takahashi (Japan), who became the first women to go sub 2:20 in

Berlin in 2001 (2:19:46). She also broke the Japanese record, which was that

time from Takahashi in Berlin as well. Shibui missed the Asian record by

Yingjie Sun (China) by just two seconds.

"right" />In a Japanese double triumph Hiromi Ominami took second place in a

fast 2:23:26. Third was Sonja Oberem (Germany) with a time of 2:23:26. When she

finished she stated that this was her last marathon race of her career.

Felix Limo won the real,- BERLIN MARATHON with a time of 2:06:44. It was not

before the very last kilometre that he was able to leave Joseph Riri (Kenya)

behind. While Limo missed his season’s best of 2:06:14 from Rotterdam,

which is also the world leading time this year, Riri sensationally improved

from 2:16:12 to 2:06:49. Joshua Chelanga was third in another clean sweep for

Kenya (2:07:05). There was another Kenyan in fourth place: Wilson Onsare

(2:08:53).

It was the sixth win in a row for Kenya in Berlin and the fourth time that

Kenyan’s took the top three places in this race. For the Japanese women

it was the fifth Berlin triumph in a row. Runners have been quite lucky with

the weather in Berlin again. Despite some very bad forecasts there was only

slight rain in the beginning of the race and no strong winds. Temperature was

9° Celsius at the start. About a million spectators lined the streets of

Berlin making this once again Germany’s greatest athletics event.