Ethiopia dominated the 50th Berlin Marathon on Sunday, with Milkesa Mengesha winning the men's race and Tigist Ketema leading a women's sweep, claiming five of the six podium spots.
Mengasha shook off Kenyan rival Cybrian Kotut on the final kilometer as he bettered his personal best by more than two minutes in 2 hours 3 minutes 17 seconds over the classic 42.195-kilometer run.
Kotut trailed by five seconds and Haymanot Alew of Ethiopia was another nine seconds back in third.
Mengesha, 24, was sixth at the world championship marathon in Budapest last year and 10th at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics race.
"I had no pressure because I wasn't among the top favourites. I could run relaxed. I trained really hard for that and could enjoy it. The crowds were wonderful," Mengesha told broadcasters RTL.
A small leader group started to break when the last pacemakers dropped out at 25 kilometers, with four runners left in front at 40 kilometers under sunny Germann skies and hundreds of thousands lining the streets.
Mengesha and Kotut were then soon on their own, with the Ethiopian then prevailing in the closing stages.
Top favourite Ketema meanwhile broke the women's field early en route to a fifth straight Ethiopian victory in 2:16.41, the third best time and Berlin and just short of her personal best 2:16.07 from her Dubai victory in January which is the fastest time ever for a debut marathon.
Ketema won by more than two minutes from Mestawot Fikir, with Bosena Mulatie completing the Ethiopian sweep another 12 seconds back.
"I was very grateful to run here. I worked very hard with my coach for this," Ketema said.
Berlin, one of the six World Marathon Majors, has seen more than a dozen world records but that was out of the question this time around as the field was not as star-studded as in the past a few weeks after the Paris Olympics.
Mengesha's time was slower than the 2:01.09 hours course record, then also a world record, from record five-time race winner Eliud Kipchoge, and the world record 2:00.35 from the late Kelvin Kiptum.
Ketema was almost five minutes off the women's world and course record 2:11.53 compatriot and training partner Tigst Assefa ran last year in the German capital.
A record 58,212 runners from 161 countries had registered for the anniversary edition of the race which was inaugurated in West Berlin before covering the whole city since German reunification in 1990.
