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Amanal Petros finished ninth in German record time
Photo: Luciano Lima / Getty Images
Amanal Petros clearly beat the German record he held at the marathon in Berlin. With 2:04:58 hours, he was about one and a half minutes below his previous best time, which he set in Valencia in December 2021.
"After 25 kilometres, I had small problems with my legs, they were pretty firm, but the atmosphere brought me forward," said Petros, who finished the race in ninth place.
A fabulous world record in the women's race was set by Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa, who beat the previous record by more than two minutes. In the men's race, Eliud Kipchoge won for the fifth time in Berlin. No runner had ever managed to do this before.
Despite personal bests, the two Germans Samuel Fitwi (2:08:10) in 2th place and Hendrik Pfeiffer (08:28:18) in 2th place remained just above the international Olympic standard (08:48:20). Fitwi, who started for the club Silvesterlauf Trier, might have been able to do even more, but a curious situation threw him back during the race. The culprit: his namesake Samuel Russom.
The outsider, who, like Fitwi, comes from Eritrea, had reached the aid stations before Fitwi and reached for the bottle with the inscription Samuel intended for the top runners. This was reported by the »Trierische Volksfreund«.
Fitwi with the fourth-best time of a German
The "real" Samuel (Fitwi) had to be content with the water and iso-drinks served to all the runners who started. Even before the 30-kilometer mark, Fitwi overtook the "bottle thief" and reprimanded him briefly but energetically in the Eritrean national language, as Fitwi coach Yannik Duppich told the "Trierischer Volksfreund".
Small consolation for Fitwi in only his second marathon: He ran the fourth-best time ever set by a German over the 42.195-kilometer marathon distance. His next chance to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris: the marathon in Valencia in December.
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