Berlin Marathon - the World's Fastest Course?

The Berlin Marathon, which is currently known as the BMW Berlin Marathon for sponsorship reasons, is an annual marathon running event that takes place in Berlin, Germany. The race is conducted every year during in the last weekend of September and it is one of the six World Marathon Majors.

runners in the Belin Marathonrunners in the Belin Marathon

The Berlin marathon is considered as one of the largest and one of the most popular road races in the world. The race attracts over 40,000 participants and a record 36,848 finished the race in 2015. It is also one of the most attended sporting event with more than one million spectators.

This marathon is well known for its flat track and mild weather conditions and is considered as one of the fastest course. The last eight men's marathon world records have been set here. The course from the start of the event till the year 1990 was completely set within West Berlin. After the unification in 1990, the course was modified to include both parts of the city.

The current course record (and world record) is two hours, one minute 39 seconds, achieved by Eliud Kipchoge, in the 2018 Berlin marathon. For the women's event, The best time and current women's world record is held by Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia. Assefa finished the 2023 Berlin Marathon in 2 hours, 11 minutes, and 53 seconds, beating the previous world record by over two minutes.

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Marathon Extra

The World Marathon Majors is a championship-style marathon running competition consisting of six annual marathons, Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York City, and two other races, the biennial IAAF World Championships Marathon and the quadrennial Olympic Games Marathon.

Major Events Extra

The largest sporting event in the world is the Olympic Games, but there are many other multi-sport games. In terms of single sport events, nothing beats the FIFA World Cup. To see what's coming up, check out the calendar of major sporting events.

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