{"id":436,"date":"2015-05-11T15:25:09","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T15:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/?p=436"},"modified":"2015-05-11T15:25:09","modified_gmt":"2015-05-11T15:25:09","slug":"kebede-sets-ethiopian-25k-record-in-berlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/news\/kebede-sets-ethiopian-25k-record-in-berlin","title":{"rendered":"Kebede sets Ethiopian 25k record in Berlin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kebede<\/a><\/p>\n

Ethiopia\u2019s newcomer Sutume Asefa Kebede produced a stunning performance in the BIG 25 Berlin on Sunday. The 21 year-old stormed away after the start of the traditional 25 k race and kept going right to finish line in the historic Berlin Olympic Stadium, smashing the Ethiopian record with a time of 1:21:55. Despite very windy conditions she was 19 seconds faster than Ejegayehu Dibaba in Chicago in 2011. Kebede\u2019s time is a world lead and the fifth fastest ever run at this distance. The Ethiopian was more than four minutes faster than second placed Kenyan Winny Jepkorir who clocked 1:25:59. Elizeba Cherono of Kenya was third with 1:26:59.<\/p>\n

Kebede breaks Ethiopian record, Cheroben defends with world lead<\/h3>\n

Abraham Cheroben defended his title with a world lead of 1:12:31. The Kenyan was almost a minute ahead of Temesgen Daba Ejerssa. The Ethiopian took second in 1:13:28 while Kenya\u2019s Kenneth Kipkemoi was third with 1:14:18.<\/p>\n

11,480 runners registered for the 35th edition of the BIG 25 Berlin, which back in 1981 was Germany\u2019s first major city road race.<\/p>\n

As expected the men\u2019s races started very fast. This is partly because the course is slightly downwards during the first five kilometres. But today the wind was also a major factor. During the first 10 k it was mostly a tailwind, which led to split times of 14:06 and 28:30 at 5 and 10 k respectively. Led by a pacemaker the four leaders \u2013 besides Cheroben, Ejerssa and Kipkemoi there was also Kenya\u2019s Frederick Ngeny in this group \u2013 were running at world record pace. This mark of 1:11:18 was established by Kenya\u2019s Dennis Kimetto, when he won the BIG 25 Berlin in 2012.<\/p>\n

However once the leaders passed the 11 k point, where the pacemaker dropped back, they faced a strong headwind. With forecasted wind gusts of up to 60 kilometres per hour corresponding to 7 on the Beaufort scale there was no chance of keeping this sort of pace during the remaining distance. Kilometre splits dropped by almost ten seconds from 2:51 to slightly over three minutes during some sections.<\/p>\n

Shortly before the 15 k mark, which was then passed in 43:04, Ngeny was the first one who dropped back from the leading group. The Kenyan finally finished fourth in 1:14:49. When Ejerssa worked hard in the lead he managed to drop Kipkemoi after 17 k. But the Ethiopian could not run away from Cheroben. The defending champion, who ran a world-class time of 1:11:47 a year ago, then started to attack with around six kilometres to go. On a slightly uphill stretch Cherono build a decisive lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI intended to attack the world record today. But with such strong headwinds during the second half of the race it was not possible,\u201d said the 22 year-old. \u201cI will have to come back next year and try again.\u201d Cherono will now prepare for the Kenyan 10,000 m trials for the World Championships. \u201cIt would be great if I could snatch a place for Beijing.\u201d But whatever happens he will not run a marathon this year. \u201cThis is for the future, I will continue running shorter events on the roads first.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s race Sutume Asefa Kebede ran at her own pace right from the start, leaving the other elite women well behind. Following a pacemaker she passed the 10 k point in a breathtaking 31:05, well inside world record pace. Kenya\u2019s Mary Keitany had run 1:19:53 in the BIG 25 in 2010.<\/p>\n

But Kebede, who now has won all of her seven road races this spring, also slowed in the wind. However she still achieved a world-class time of 1:21:55. Passing the half marathon point before, which has an official timing, she was clocked with 68:23. This is by far the fastest half marathon time of a woman on German territory since spring 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very happy to have broken the Ethiopian record. I did not expect this to happen today,\u201d said Kebede, who now intends to run the 5,000 m on track in Ethiopia. \u201cIn the autumn I will run road races again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Behind Kenyans Jepkorir (1:25:59) and Cherono (1:26:59) two Ethiopians followed in fourth and fifth: Helen Bekele Tola and Zewdnesh Ayele Belachew clocked sub 1:30 times with 1:27:39 and 1:28:55 respectively.
\nphoto credit: photorun.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethiopia\u2019s newcomer Sutume Asefa Kebede produced a stunning performance in the BIG 25 Berlin on Sunday. The 21 year-old stormed away after the start of the traditional 25 k race and kept going right to finish line in the historic Berlin Olympic Stadium, smashing the Ethiopian record with a time of 1:21:55. Despite very windy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[102,7,116,72,1],"tags":[200,210,227],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopia","category-featured","category-germany","category-kenya","category-news","tag-200","tag-berlin-25k","tag-ethiopia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}