Controversial end to the 2012 Berlin Marathon...

Last Sunday, the Berlin Marathon was won by Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai in 2h 04m 15s. His compatriot and training partner Dennis Kimetto finished just one second behind in 2h 04m 16s.

The two of them broke free of the other runners around the the 32 km mark. At that stage, they were still on for setting a new world record but slowed in the last 8 kms. Their times however, once verified will be the 4th and 5th fastest Marathon times ever.

There was however some controversy in how they finished the race. With a prize of €50,000 for the winner, they seemed to make no effort to race over the last few hundred metres. They just ran through the Brandenburg Gate and over the finish line with Kimetto just two or three metres behind. There was no kick or sprint for the line, it was almost as if they had a prior arrangement.

See the video clip below from 2:07 onwards and see what you think...

Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya wins Boston Marathon in 2:03:02...

Only last week, I put up a post about a BBC article that asked if a sub 2 hour Marathon was possible and sure enough, there was a hint of it in Boston on Monday. The Kenyan runner Geoffrey Mutai won the Marathon in a time of 2 hours 3 min and 2 seconds.

While this was 57 seconds faster than the current Marathon record of 2:03:59 set by Haile Gebrselaissie in Berlin in 2008, it won't count because the route doesn't qualify.

It does however suggest that the current record may be broken soon?