Rosemary Wanjiru Leads the 51st BMW BERLIN-MARATHON Women's Field, Karoline Grovdal Eyes Comeback
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Kenya’s Rosemary Wanjiru, ranked tenth among the fastest women in marathon history, headlines the elite women’s field for the 51st BMW BERLIN-MARATHON on September 21. With a personal best of 2:16:14, Wanjiru is a strong contender following her impressive second-place finish in Berlin in 2022.
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Wanjiru returns to the race where her marathon career began, after a successful win at the Tokyo Marathon and a recent runner-up finish in 2024. Meanwhile, Norway’s Karoline Grovdal will make her second attempt at the classic distance after an unfortunate withdrawal in Hamburg earlier this year, looking to bounce back and challenge the established marathon elite.
Degitu Azimeraw is another runner in Berlin’s elite field who has already run well under 2:20:00 and she as well has already beaten this mark several times. The 24-year-old Ethiopian ran her best race to date in London 2021. There she achieved a surprise runner-up position with 2:17:58.
Like Rosemary Wanjiru Ethiopia’s Mestawut Fikir is also returning to Berlin. After the 25-year-old won her marathon debut in Paris a year ago, she improved to 2:18:48 in Berlin taking second place.
Karoline Grovdal took the half marathon at the European Athletics Championships in Rome last summer. While this was her biggest career victory so far, the 35 year-old also won the European cross country title for three years in a row, from 2021 to 2023. Karoline Grovdal ran her marathon debut in Hamburg this April, hoping to make an instant impact by attacking the famous Norwegian national record of Ingrid Kristiansen. Back in 1985 Kristiansen ran a spectacular world record time of 2:21:06 in London. That global mark stood for over a decade and is still the Norwegian record. Grovdal was unlucky in Hamburg since she had to drop out due to a shoe problem. She will now hope to bounce back in Berlin.
More information is available online at: www.berlin-marathon.com.
