Last week’s BMW Berlin Marathon drew more buzz and
controversy than the acclaim it deserved after producing the fastest men’s
marathon of the year.
Hyped as a world record attempt by Geoffrey Mutai, focus was
on the set up of the fastest legal time ever in the marathon to erase the
current best of Patrick Makau’s spectacular run last year in the same venue.
Mutai made a brave
attempt at the record winning in a time of 2:04:15, a blistering time, but slightly behind
the world record of 2:03:38, which was set by Patrick Makau last
year in this very race. It is no coincidence that these fast
times are produced in this race. The Berlin course is flat and custom made for
fast times.
Coming off a phenomenal 2011 where he ran the fastest ever
marathon in Boston that unfortunately did not count for an official record due
to significant elevation drops and tailwinds, there were high expectations of
Mutai to further reduce the current record to new lows.
Mutai also won the
New York marathon last year, which had most pegging him as the best marathoner
on the planet. However, that status took a big hit after he withdrew
from this year's Boston Marathon and then was not included on the Kenyan
Olympic team.
Well, Mutai is
definitely back on track. While he was gunning for a world record in this
event, his performance was still impressive. This was the fastest time at a
marathon this year, and the sixth fastest ever.
Athletics Kenya must rue its decision not to
select Mutai as part of the Olympic team to London because he is certainly the
strongest marathon runner at the moment.
Mutai edged out his training partner Dennis Kimetto at his debut marathon by one second and the
two ran neck and neck for much of the later stages of the race.
It isn’t the
close finish that had people talking; it’s the manner in which both men crossed
the line. There was no sprint to the finish by both athletes and Kimetto never
attempted to pass Mutai.
Some race
commentators even suggested that Kimetto didn’t put up a sprint at the end in
order to enable Mutai win because there was less at stake for him, which I
found rather callous.
But most
viewers didn’t realize that these two were running at well under world record
pace in 3rd quarter of the race that neither had the energy for a final sprint, especially the
debutant who was operating in new territory.
The lackluster
finish drew more buzz when Mutai was awarded the World Marathon Majors title
with his victory in Berlin. In order to win the World Marathon Majors title, an
athlete must win 3 out of 5 major marathons in the sports 2-year cycle. In
2011, Mutai won both the Boston and NYC marathons, making Berlin his third
major marathon.
Nonetheless, it was a great day for Kenyan runners who completely dominated the Berlin Marathon taking the top nine
spots in the race.
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