Marathon World Record: Two hours, two minutes and 57 seconds Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto smashed the marathon world record in Berlin on Sunday, winning the race in a time of two hours, two minutes and 57 seconds after setting a scintillating pace from the start to shave 26 seconds off the previous best.
Kimetto dazzled hundreds of thousands of spectators along the inner-city course with his quick and seemingly effortless running style that saw off any challenge during the race.
The 30-year-old pre-race favourite broke away in a seven-man group, including fellow Kenyans Emmanuel Mutai and Geoffrey Kamworor, after 20 kilometres on a sunny and cool Berlin morning.
With four km remaining, he pulled clear from Mutai after the pair had shaken off Kamworor a little earlier to become the first man to complete the race in less than two hours and three minutes.
Kimetto, whose time also eclipsed the 2:03:02 clocked by Geoffrey Mutai in 2011 on Boston’s record-ineligible point-to-point course, clocked under three minutes for all but three kilometres with an average of two minutes and 55 seconds per km in a sensational race.
His second half was about 30 seconds faster than the first.
"I feel good because I won a very tough race," Kimetto told reporters. "I felt good from the start and in the last five kilometres I felt I could do it [break the record]."
Tirfi Tsegaye won the women’s race with a time of 2:20:18, nine seconds ahead of fellow Ethiopian Feyse Tadese who was second. American Shalane Flanagan was third.
Source: RTE Sport
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