2011 BMW Berlin Marathon: Patrick Makau Breaks WR in 2:03.38! Florence Kiplagat Wins in 2:19.44, Radcliffe third, by Larry Eder

Patrick Makau starts his surge, 2011 BMW Berlin Marathon,
photo by PhotoRun.net

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Patrick Makau showed that he is, today the best male marathoner in the world. Makau ran with Haile Gebrselassie, the current WR, with a phalanx of pacemakers (26 in fact). The early splits were 14:36, 29:17, 43:51, and 20k in 58:30. Makau hit the halfway in 1:01:43. The 25k was hit in 1:13:18, with Haile Gebrselassie hit in 1:13:19.

Makau surged at 27km and took off from Gebrselassie, who stopped for over one minute, holding his back and stomach. Gebrselassie got back on the course and ran, trying to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

Makau hit the 30k in 1:27:38, with Gebrselassie one minute, ten seconds back (1:28:38). Makau did not stop, hitting 35k in 1:42:16, building a lead of 2:27 over Haile Gebrselassie at 35k. Patrick Makau broke the race open between 25k and 30k, running that 5k split in 14:19!

Patrick Makau did not stop, hitting 40k in 1:57.15. Makau’s focus allowed him to break the former world record of Haile Gebrselassie of 2:03.59 by twenty-one seconds, running a new WR of 2:03.38! Pacemaker Stephen Chemlany took second in 2:07:55. Haile Gebrselassie dropped out between 35 and 40k. The Berlin Marathon media page noted that Haile would probably run another marathon to qualify for London, more than likely Dubai.

a happy new world record holder, Patrick Makau, WR, 2:03.38, photo by PhotoRun.net

Makau told the media: “I came to Berlin to win. At the half way point I knew that I could break the record. It is the greatest day of my career.”

Florence Kiplagat, 2011 BMW Berlin Marathon, 2:19.44, photo by PhotoRun.net

On the women’s side, Florence KIplagat took the lead by halfway, and just did not look back. Building a lead of over 2 minutes, Kiplagat hit the finish line in 2:19.44. Irina Mikitenko, who had two rough years, finished second in 2:22.18 and Paula Radcliffe held one, running 2:23.46.

Paula Radcliffe, 2011 BMW Berlin Marathon, photo by PhotoRun.net

Paula Radcliffe twittered the following after the race: “Knew I may have to swallow my pride a little here. Now a break and then getting on with it.”

Congrats to all who ran this morning in Berlin. For complete results, please click on: www.berlinmarathon.com.

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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