Four women with personal best times under 2:20 and six men with times under 2:05 are on the entry lists for the BMW Berlin Marathon, a World Athletics Platinum Label Road race, September 29th.

Ethiopian Tigist Ketema and Kenyan Rosemary Wanjiru lead the women’s entry list with personal bests that put them in the top 10 of the all-time marathon world rankings.

Best known as an 800m and 1500m specialist, Ketema burst onto the marathon world limelight in Dubai in January when she ran a time of 2:16:07, a time that makes her the ninth fastest female marathoner of all time. She followed that with a seventh-place finish in London in April with a time of 2:23:21, and Berlin will be her first race since then.

Just one place behind Ketema on the all-time list is Wanjiru, who finished second in Tokyo in March with a time of 2:16:14. She previously finished sixth at the World Championships in Budapest last year and won the Tokyo Marathon. Wanjiru also finished second in Berlin in 2022, running 2:18:00 on her debut.

They will be joined at the start by Ethiopians Genzebe Dibaba and Yebrugal Melese, who have personal bests of 2:18:05 and 2:19:36 respectively, as well as their compatriots Mestawot Fikir (2:20:45), Azmera Gebru (2:20:48), Sisay Gola (2:20:50), Ababel Yeshaneh (2:20:51) and Fikrte Wereta (2:21:32) as well as Japanese Mizuki Matsuda (2:20:52).

A total of 13 world records have been set at the Berlin Marathon so far, the most recent of which was Tigist Assefa’s record in last year’s women’s race of 2:11:53.

The men’s title was won by Eliud Kipchoge, who thus recorded his fifth victory.

This year, for the first time since 2014, the men’s race will not feature either Kipchoge or Kenenisa Bekele – who have won the race seven times between them, with two of Kipchoge’s victories being world records – but fast times will still be the goal.

Among those returning to Berlin are Ethiopian Tadese Takele and Kenyan Ronald Korir, who finished third and fourth last year with personal best times of 2:03:24 and 2:04:22 respectively.

Kenya’s Cybrian Kotut ran his personal best of 2:04:34 when he finished second in Amsterdam last year, making his Berlin Marathon debut. Ethiopians Hailemaryam Kiros and Bazezew Asmare have also broken the 2:05 mark in their careers so far, running 2:04:41 in Paris in 2021 and 2:04:57 in Amsterdam in 2022.

Kenya’s Kibiwott Kandie is running the marathon for the third time. The former half marathon world record holder, who ran 13.1 miles in 57:32 in 2020, will look to build on his personal best of 2:04:48 set in Valencia last year.

Also hoping for a place on the podium is Kenyan Samwel Mailu, the half marathon world champion who won the Vienna City Marathon last year with a course record time of 2:05:08 and is now continuing his comeback after an injury.

Elite fields

Women
Tigist Ketema (ETH) 2:16:07
Rosemary Wanjiru (KEN) 2:16:14
Genzebe Dibaba (ETH) 2:18:05
Yebrugal Melese (ETH) 2:19:36
Mestawot Fikir (ETH) 2:20:45
Azmera Gebru (ETH) 2:20:48
Sisay Gola (ETH) 2:20:50
Ababel Yeshaneh (ETH) 2:20:51
Mizuki Matsuda (JPN) 2:20:52
Fikrte Vereta (ETH) 2:21:32

Men
Tadese Takele (ETH) 2:03:24
Ronald Korir (KEN) 2:04:22
Cybrian Kotut (KEN) 2:04:34
Hailemaryam Kiros (ETH) 2:04:41
Kibiwott Kandie (KEN) 2:04:48
Bazezew Asmare (ETH) 2:04:57
Samwel Mailu (KEN) 2:05:08
Milkesa Mengesha (ETH) 2:05:29
Haymanot Alew (ETH) 2:05:30
Philimon Kipchumba (KEN) 2:05:35
Stephen Kiprop (KEN) 2:07:04