Anyone who thought Jan Frodeno would slow down after his retirement was mistaken. The German legend has been extremely active in the trail running scene recently, but yesterday he also lined up at the Berlin Marathon. Proving he is still remarkably fast, Frodeno crossed the finish line in an impressive time of 2:23:33.
After the race, Frodeno shared that he never hit the wall and actually ran a negative split, finishing the second half of the marathon faster than the first. He comfortably smashed his goal of sub-2:25, coming in 1 minute and 27 seconds under his target. With his final time, Frodeno finished 127th overall, 117th among men, and 3rd in his age category out of approximately 56,000 starters.
The Berlin Marathon was won by Guye Adola, who clocked 2:02:50. In the women’s race, Tigst Assefa took the victory in 2:11:04. For much of the race, the Ethiopian appeared on track to erase the tainted world record of 2:09:56. However, in the final kilometers, she suffered an Achilles tendon injury and had to limp across the finish line. The current world record (set in Chicago, 2024) is considered tainted after its holder, Ruth Chepngetich, tested positive for a banned substance a few months later, confessed to doping, and was handed a three-year suspension. For now, the record remains officially recognized as no evidence was found that anti-doping rules were breached during that specific race.
