Ethiopian athletes sweep to victory in Berlin marathon

A series of Ethiopian athletes clinched medals in this year’s Berlin marathon on Sunday, including Milkesa Mengesha, who won the men’s race with a time of just over 2 hours 3 minutes – a new personal best;

He was among a series of Ethiopian athletes who dominated the podium place in the German capital, along with Haymanot Alew.

Alew narrowly missed out on second place to Kenya’s Cybrian Kotut.

Ethiopia’s Tigist Ketema came out on top in the women’s category, with a time of 2 hours, 16 minutes and 42 seconds. Her compatriots Mestawut Fikir and Bosena Mulatie took second and third.

It was the first edition of the event to take place without either Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge or Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele who participated since 2014.

More than 58,000 runers from 161 nations put themselves forward for the challenge – a record number of athletes.