Gladys Cherono paid no attention to the predictions and retained her title at the Berlin Marathon on Sunday, winning with a time of 2:18:11.
She outraced the favorite, Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia, and shattered her own PR to become the fourth fastest woman in history. The mark was also well under the course record for Berlin, smashing Mizuki Noguchi’s time from 2005 of 2:19:12.
For Cherono, it was the second straight Berlin win and third overall victory for the 35-year-old Kenyan.
In fact, all of the top three women ran faster than the course record and under 2:19. Ruti Aga (Ethiopia) also overtook Dibaba, who had aimed at matching Kipchoge with a world record. Aga took second in 2:18:34, a huge six-minute improvement that makes her sixth fastest woman in history, with Dibaba a disappointed third in 2:18:55.
For Cherono, it was the second straight Berlin win and third overall victory for the 35-year-old Kenyan.
“I was running my own race, so it didn’t worry me that Tirunesh was in front,” Cherono said after the race. “My training was good, and when I took over the lead at halfway, I was feeling very strong. I wanted negative splits. I never looked behind, because I was not fearing anybody.”
Only weariness over the last two miles slowed her to finish just past 2:18.
Dibaba said she her race affected by a cramp.
“My training went very well, except for problems in the Ethiopian rainy season” she said through an interpreter. “Perhaps that is why I suffered a cramp. But I kept running and I am happy with third place.”
Undaunted, she is still aiming at the world record.
“I know the record is very fast [Paula Radcliffe, 2:15:25 in 2003], but I think I can attack it. That is my plan.” Dibaba said.
Edna Kiplagat, a former winner at Boston and New York, was fourth in 2:21:18, the fourth fastest time of her career, at age 38.
The Japanese runner Mizuki Matsuda ran a PR by more than a minute with 2:22:23 in fifth, and three other Japanese women placed in the top 10. Japan, which has twice provided women Olympic champions in the marathon, is putting a major effort into rebuilding its strength in preparation for the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020.
Cherono claimed to have no plans for the future beyond a party tonight to celebrate her victory and course record.
Roger Robinson is a highly-regarded writer and historian and author of seven books on running. His recent Running Throughout Time: the Greatest Running Stories Ever Told has been acclaimed as one of the best ever published. Roger was a senior writer for Running Times and is a frequent Runner’s World contributor, admired for his insightful obituaries. A lifetime elite runner, he represented England and New Zealand at the world level, set age-group marathon records in Boston and New York, and now runs top 80-plus times on two knee replacements. He is Emeritus Professor of English at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and is married to women’s running pioneer Kathrine Switzer.
