Ethiopian affair as Gebreslase wins Berlin women's marathon

On her marathon debut, 26-year old Gotytom Gebreslase beat stiff competition from experienced runners to win the Berlin women's Marathon in 2:20:09.

The Ethiopian led a clean sweep for her compatriots as race favourite Hiwot Gebrekidan clocked 2:21:23 for silver while Helen Tola completed the podium places in 2:23.05. 

Gebreslase had not featured greatly as a possible winner ahead of the race but a possible podium finisher. The Ethiopian, who won the world U-18 3000m title back in 2011. She boasts of a 1:07:52 personal best for the half marathon and 14:57.33 for 5000m which put her in contention for a podium finish. 

Favourite Gebrekidan lead for much of the race, bringing the lead group through the halfway mark in 1:09:19.

To everyone’s surprise, however, Gebreslase took over the lead at the 30-kilometre mark and never let it go. She gradually increased her lead, first by 13 seconds at the 35-kilometre mark, then 31 seconds by kilometre 40 as she went on to win by more than one minute ahead of Gebrekidan.

“To be the first was a great surprise and joy to me. But I did come here to win regardless of the stellar field," said Gebreslase. 

The women’s race at the Berlin Marathon was touted as an attack on the course record but that was never to be. The best time to date was set three years ago when the Kenya ran 2:18:11. 

Gebrekidan, the fastest woman in the world this year thanks to her personal best of 2:19:35 in winning the Milan title in April was the woman to watch. She was making her debut in the Abbott World Marathon Majors Series.