Mikitenko and Haile win Berlin Marathon in record breaking times – European Athletics (EAA) – NEWS

Irina Mikitenko of Germany recovered well from the injuries that prevented her from competing in Beijing to win the women's race of the Berlin Marathon in 2:19:19 and put Mikitenko into the lead in the second season of the World Marathon Majors (WMM) 2007-2008.

Mikitenko improved her best time by over four minutes, breaking the German national record and becoming the first German woman to run the Marathon in under 2:20.  

Mikitenko's winning time is also a new world lead for 2008 and ranks her as the fourth best performer ever (and second best ever European behind Britain's Paula Radcliffe).

The German now has 65 WMM points, putting her in equal first place alongside Ethiopia's Gete Wami for the season. Mikitenko has also taken the lead for the third WMM Series in 2008-2009 with 50 points from two races.

A really exciting contest is developing in the women's competition for the second season of 2007-2008. Gete Wami must finish second or better in New York to improve her points' total for the season. The Ethiopian has already taken maximum points from four races so finishing third, fourth or fifth would not benefit her. She was second in London in 2007, first in Berlin in 2007, second in New York in 2007 and third in London 2008.

If the women's competition should finish with Mikitenko and Wami level on points, then the win-loss ratio would be taken into account, but even this would not produce a definitive result since the Ethiopian finished ahead of the German in Berlin a year ago and the positions were reversed in London.

At present, factors such as how many races runners have done to achieve their points' total, how far in front of one another they've finished in terms of places or time in the relevant WMM races are not in the WMM rules. It would be up to the race directors to work out how they decide the winner.

Gete Wami did not compete in Berlin, it was the chance for another amazing Ethiopian runner – the legendary Haile Gebrselassie – to deliver on his promised record breaking run, shattering his own Marathon world record by running 2:03:59 to become the first man in history under 2:04 for the distance.

It is Gebrselassie's 26th world record, and improves by almost half a minute the world record of 2:04:26 that he set in Berlin one year ago.

The first European home in the men's race was Germany's Falk Cierpinski, who ran a personal best of 2:13:30 to finish in ninth place.

In the women's race the next European home after Mikitenko was Russia's Gulnara Vigovskaya who finished fifth in 2:30:03.

In total 40,827 runners from 107 countries entered the race.

Full results should be available to download on this weblink:
www.real-berlin-marathon.com

European Athletics (EAA) – NEWS