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HOME ALONE . . . Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge crosses the finish line first to win the Berlin marathon in Germany yesterday. — Reuters

BERLIN. — Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge staved off a surprise challenge from Ethiopian debutant Guye Adola to win an enthralling Berlin marathon yesterday, but missed out on his bid to set a new world record.

Prior to the race, Kipchoge, fellow Kenyan Wilson Kipsang and Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele had set their sights on breaking Dennis Kimetto’s leading marathon mark of two hours, two minutes and 57 seconds along the flat, inner-city course.

Instead, Kipchoge ended up getting embroiled in a classic tussle with the 26-year-old Adola, making his marathon debut, and needed until the 41st kilometre of the damp course to shake off his last surviving rival and cross the line first.

Kipchoge clocked an official time of two hours, three minutes 32 seconds after holding off the challenge of Adola, who finished 14 seconds back on his debut at the distance.

Ethiopia’s Mosinet Geremew finished third, clocking 2:06:12.

“I am happy to have run this race. The conditions were not friendly because of the rain,“ Kipchoge told reporters. ”Luckily there was not strong wind.

“I didn’t expect Adolo but I am happy for him. This is sport.

“The conditions were not easy, because of the rain, but fortunately there was not too much wind,” said Kipchoge.

The star-studded trio made their intentions clear from the start, running at a blistering early pace that was well inside the time Kenya’s Kimetto set in the same race three years ago.

The rainy conditions soon took their toll, however, and the elite men had drifted outside world record pace by the 12km mark.

Reaching halfway in 61:29, Bekele was the first of the big names to fall back, his bid to become the first man to hold the 5 000m, 10 000m and marathon world records dashed in the spray kicked up from Kipsang and Kipchoge as they sped away.

Former world record holder Kipsang was the next to run out of steam and walked off the course shortly after the 30km mark, setting the stage for a stunning duel between Kipchoge and Adola.

Adola was determined to upstage the favourite and attempted an audacious bid to break clear after 37km but Kipchoge kept his cool and caught back up with the Ethiopian four minutes later.

Kipchoge, who also won the race in 2015, surged clear of Adola as they approached the iconic Brandenburg Gate, leaving the debutant to cross the line 14 seconds later in the fastest ever debut time on a record-eligible course.

In the women’s race, Kenya’s Gladys Cherono won in 02:20:23 with Ruti Aga of Ethiopia second at 0.18secs back and Valary Aiyabei of Kenya taking third at 0.30.

Heavy rain the night before and constant drizzle during the race meant the world record of 2:02.57, set in Berlin by Kimetto of Kenya in 2014, did not fall as expected.

However, there were surprises as both former world record holder Wilson Kipsang and last year’s winner Kenenisa Bekele dropped out after the halfway stage.

Bekele, who had targeted the world record, dropped off the lead group just after the halfway mark with laboured running and eventually failed to finish.

Kipsang suddenly stopped at the 30kms point and was clearly ill.

“I’m glad I beat Adola, I did not expect to fight against someone other than Bekele or Kipsang,” added Kipchoge, who was left to go head-to-head with Adola, who ran a superb race. — Reuters