Sawe, Wanjiru announced for Berlin Marathon

Kenyan major marathon winners Sabastian Sawe and Rosemary Wanjiru are among the athletes announced for the BMW Berlin Marathon, a World Athletics Platinum Label road race, on 21 September.

Sawe followed his 2:02:05 marathon debut win in Valencia in December by claiming victory in London in 2:02:27 in April and currently sits fifth on the world all-time list.

He won the world half marathon title in Riga in 2023 and already has good memories of Berlin having won the city’s half marathon in 2023.

His challengers are set to include the defending champion Milkesa Mengesha of Ethiopia and Tanzanian record-holder Gabriel Geay. Mengesha won in Berlin last year in a PB of 2:03:17, while Geay ran his best of 2:03:00 three years ago in Valencia.

Wanjiru won the Tokyo Marathon in 2023 and clocked her PB of 2:16:14 when finishing second in the Japanese capital one year later.

Now she returns to Berlin, where she finished second on her marathon debut in 2:18:00 in 2022.

She will be joined by Ethiopia’s Degitu Azimeraw (2:17:58) and Mestawut Fikir (2:18:48), plus Norway’s Karoline Grovdal, who starts her second marathon after racing in Hamburg earlier this year but being unable to finish.