Bekele heads back to Berlin

The great Kenenisa Bekele will return to defend his BMW BERLIN MARATHON title on September 26.

The Ethiopian has not featured in a race since setting the second fastest time in history (2:01:41) in the German capital in 2019.

He was due to lock horns with Eliud Kipchoge at the 2020 Virgin Money London Marathon but withdrew through injury shortly before the race.

Bekele missed out on selection for the Ethiopian squad to contest the Olympic Marathon, so will arrive fresh in Berlin where he will attempt to win his third marathon crown there, and perhaps shave off those three seconds needed to usurp Kipchoge as the world record holder.

His performance in 2019 was one for the ages, falling well off the pace late in the race only to recover and stage a storming comeback to surge past countrymen Sisay Lemma and Birhanu Legese.

He couldn’t quite find the extra pace to reach the finish inside Kipchoge’s 2:01:39 set on the same stretch of road a year previous, but after a few injury-hit years, it showed that one of the finest track athletes in history was capable of mixing it with the very best over 26.2 miles.

Berlin will be hoping to see more Bekele magic on its streets on September 26.