Berlin, September 27th, 2026 (The Berlin Spectator) – Guye Adola from Ethiopia won the BMW Berlin Marathon on Sunday. He covered the 42 kilometers (26 miles) in 2:02:51 hours. This is his personal record for this race and generally the 13th-best time ever for the Berlin Marathon. His compatriot Dida came in second. His time was 2:03:17 hours.
For winning, Adola will receive 40,000 Euro (45,564 U.S. Dollars or 34,392 Pounds Sterling) and possibly an extra bonus for finishing this quickly. The same applies to the fastest female runner. Today’s winner Tigst Assefa intended to set a new world record. But just before the finish line, she started limping. Still, she won with the more than excellent time of 2:11:04 hours. Assefa missed the world record by about one minute.
An off-duty cop, Anna Langerwisch, is the fastest German woman today. She did the entire route in 2:27:31 hours. Haftom Welday, the fastest German man, needed 2:08:25 hours. Obviously, both of those times are more than impressive.
First Throng
The Marathon took place on a beautiful, warm and sunny fall day. Tens of thousands of spectators (including The Berlin Spectator) lined up along the route early. They cheered for wheelchair riders and runners. At kilometer 24 in Berlin’s Schöneberg borough, located at the big Innsbrucker Platz intersection, the fastest runners appeared at 9:52 a.m., a bit more than an hour after the race commenced.
The first throng of participants who ran past this square included Guye Adola. Much later, at kilometer 35, he started putting some space between him and his colleagues by accelerating.
On this day, the city felt peaceful. At the Berlin Marathon, no violence was reported, no haters protested on the streets, no far-left antisemites spread conspiracy theories about one of 197 states in the world, and no right-wing radicals chanted racist slogans. It felt good just to be there, to chat with fellow Berliners and cheer for the participants.
A total of 1,800 police officers made sure the Berlin Marathon was safe. They included members of the bike squad who raced through the city ahead of the runners in order to ask people to get off the street. At each larger intersection on the route, cops were present.
At the finish line at Brandenburg Gate, the runners were welcomed and celebrated. This is where the fastest participants were interviewed by television channels and trophies were given out. The slowest participants were expected to reach the Gate at some point in the afternoon.
