Hawi Feysa smashes course record in Frankfurt

This made her the twelfth fastest time in the world this year. Second-placed Kenyan Magdalyne Masai also stayed under the previous course record with a personal best of 2:18:58. Third place went to Ethiopian Shuko Genemo with 2:22:37. The old course record of 2:19:10 was set by Kenyan Valary Aiyabei in 2019.

In the men’s race there was a surprising debutant victory: 22-year-old Kenyan Benard Biwott won in 2:05:54 hours ahead of Ethiopians Gossa Challa and Lencho Tesfaye, who crossed the finish line after 2:07:35 and 2:08:02 respectively. Adding together the two winning times (4:23:19 hours) it is the fastest race in the history of the classic running race on the Main.

While Laura Hottenrott (Grün-Weiß Kassel) gave up the race after around 30 kilometers, debutant Jan Lukas Becker (LSG Saarbrücken-Sulzbachtal) was the best German, finishing 17th with a time of 2:15:20. The fastest German runner was Christin Adler (LAC Kronshagen) in 25th place with a time of 2:45:57.

“The fact that we are experiencing such a fantastic course record time makes our whole team happy. In top-class sport, you can prepare a lot, but you can’t guarantee anything. We had top conditions, numerous personal bests and many happy scenes of celebration at the finish,” said Jo Schindler. Sports director Philipp Kopp said: "We have shown again that you can run fast in Frankfurt. So we are very satisfied.”

13,939 runners from 113 nations had registered for the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon. Including supporting competitions, there were 25,616 athletes on the race weekend. This exceeded the level of participants before the pandemic.

With her success in 2:17:25, Hawi Feysa achieved a brilliant breakthrough on the marathon distance. The Ethiopian had already shown strong international performances on shorter distances and as sixth in the 2023 Cross Country World Championships. The Frankfurt victory in an outstanding course record time now takes her to a new level. “The record was my goal, and it worked out perfectly. I still had energy after kilometer 25 and was able to run away from the group. The atmosphere on the course helped me a lot. You can definitely run times of 2:16 on this fast course,” said Hawi Feysa.

In addition to Feysa’s previous running achievements, her high-class training environment also indicated that she was ready for a splendid performance on Frankfurt’s asphalt. Her training colleagues in Addis Ababa include Olympic silver medalist Tigst Assefa, who ran the world record of 2:11:53 a year ago in Berlin, the current Berlin winner Tigist Ketema and Amane Beriso Shankule, the marathon world champion from Budapest 2023.

Right from the start, the fastest runners implemented their announcement and started their attack on the course record of 2:19:10. Although no athlete in the field had a faster personal best than 2:21:17, the leaders were always moving at the necessary pace. “I originally wanted to run my own pace at the front. But the organization planned for us to run together in a group until kilometer 25. This tactic was very good,” said Feysa, praising the planning of sports director Kopp.

Five athletes passed the half marathon mark in 69:16 minutes, including Hawi Feysa and the two sisters Magdalyne and Linet Masai from Kenya. When Feysa picked up the pace after kilometer 25, Magdalyne Masai was the only one who could keep up with her. Masai kept the race open until just before kilometer 40 and ran in second place with a gap of just a few seconds. However, Hawi Feysa was unbeatable on what was to be a big day for her. The Ethiopian managed a much faster second half of the course and kept up the pace until the celebrated finish in the festival hall. Behind her, Masai crossed the finish line in 2:18:58.