El Goumri wins Hamburg in a Moroccan record; Kipkoech sets a 2:17:05 course record
El Goumri's 2:04:24 is the first Moroccan win in 40 editions; Samuel Fitwi was second in 2:04:45, Germany's first men's podium there since 1999.
Photograph: Samuel Fitwi in the 5000 m at the 2018 German Championships in Nuremberg, by Stefan Brending (2eight), CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia CommonsOthmane El Goumri won the 40th Hamburg Marathon on Sunday in 2:04:24, the first Moroccan to win the race and a national record, improving the 2:05:12 he set in Barcelona three years ago. He is 33. Samuel Fitwi was second in 2:04:45, an eleven-second personal best and the first top-three finish by a German man in Hamburg since Carsten Eich in 1999. Kenya's Kennedy Kimutai was third in 2:04:56, with Hunde Lechisa and Taresa Tolosa of Ethiopia next.
The field went through halfway in 62:04 and 30 km in 1:28:35, with more than 20 men still on pace for under 2:05 at that point; ten finished under 2:06. Aaron Bienenfeld's 2:08:47 in 16th was the fastest marathon debut by a German. Two-time winner Bernard Koech was 15th.
Brillian Kipkoech of Kenya won the women's race in 2:17:05, a course record by 18 seconds over Yalemzerf Yehualaw's mark from four years ago, and a personal best by almost seven minutes from 2:23:56. Kipkoech, 31, trains in Kapsabet under Claudio Berardelli in the same group as Sabastian Sawe, who had broken the marathon world record in London a few hours earlier. She led through halfway in 68:42 with Rebecca Tanui and Marion Kibor. Tanui was second in 2:18:25 and Kasanesh Ayenew of Ethiopia third in 2:19:39.
A record 20,000 had registered for the marathon and 46,000 for the weekend; about 16,000 started and nearly 15,500 finished.
Hamburg will always be the race in the shadow of London's date. This year it got the national record, the course record and the biggest field in its history anyway.
Sources: AIMS; Marathons.com.
