RESULTS Paris Marathon 2021 ➤ [+ Photos]

What a great weekend of running!

Several cities around the world hosted great running events today. In the Netherlands, thousands of runners completed the supreme discipline of running at the Amsterdam Marathon, and in Barcelona, the half marathon took center stage.

40,000 in the city of love

But undisputedly the biggest marathon event this weekend was the Paris Marathon. Every year, more than 40,000 marathon runners finish the 42.195-kilometer distance here. This makes Paris one of the biggest marathon events in the world anyway. After the cancellation in 2020 and the postponement this year from April to October, more than two and a half years or exactly 918 days had passed since the last Paris Marathon.

The Paris Marathon has some catching up to do

October 17, 2021 marked the 45th running of the Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris. After failing to set course records in 2018 and 2019, organizers were hoping for improvements in course records this year. After all, the previous course records of 2:20:55 hours (Purity Cherotich Rionoripo in 2017) and 2:05:03 hours (Kenenisa Bekele in 2014) were very good, but a few minutes are missing on the current marathon world records.

This gap to marathons like in Berlin, Chicago or London should of course be reduced as soon as possible, which is why some top runners from Africa were signed up for the Paris Marathon 2021, although almost all other major international marathon events also took place or will still take place this fall. In the men's race, six runners entered with a best time under 2:06 hours, and in the women's race, eight athletes entered with times under 2:25 hours. Top favorites from the registration time were the Kenyans Nicolas Kirwa (PB: 2:05:01 hours) and Priscah Jeptoo (2:20:14 hours), who took Olympic bronze nine years ago over the marathon distance.

Top 5 under the course record

It was a high class race in the men's race, where the course record of Kenenisa Bekele was somewhat surprisingly broken. The top 5 of the race all stayed under 2:05 hours and thus under the previous record mark of Bekele (2:05:03 hours). Man of the day was Elisha Rotich, who was able to break away decisively from a large leading group with a successful attack five kilometers before the finish. With 2:04:21 hours, the Kenyan was 42 seconds under the previous Paris record.

The performance of Ethiopian Hailelmaryam Kiros was also sensational, finishing second in his marathon debut with 2:04:41 hours, just ahead of Kenya's Hillary Kipsambu (2:04:44 hours). Overall, the top 8 ran times of 2:05:25 hours or faster. The top 14 were all athletes from Kenya and Ethiopia. Behind them in 15th place was Yohan Durand (2:09:21 hours), already the best Frenchman.

Ethiopian festival in the women's race

The times in the women's race were less high-class. But it was an exciting race. Only three seconds separated the winner Tigist Memuye (2:26:12 hours) from her compatriot Yenenesh Dinkesa. The top 4 of the field were all female athletes from Ethiopia. Only runners from Kenya and Ethiopia were able to position themselves in the top 10. Eleventh was the best Frenchwoman Leila Bessalem (2:44:49 hours).