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The Berlin Half Marathon is a major endurance event held annually in early spring in
Berlin Half Marathon Numbers and records
/ref>
Association of Road Racing Statisticians (2011-04-04). Retrieved on 2011-04-09.
The Berlin Half Marathon is a major endurance event held annually in early spring in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. Besides the runner's main race, the event includes a race for inline skaters, wheelchair athletes and handbikers. All athletes use the same course, which has the official half marathon distance of 21.0975 km.
The half marathon and the Berlin Marathon
The Berlin Marathon (german: Berlin-Marathon, ) is a marathon event held annually on the streets of Berlin, Germany on the last weekend of September. Held annually since 1974, the event includes multiple races over the marathon distance of , inc ...
are hosted by the club SCC Berlin
SCC Berlin is a German sports club based in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin and founded in 1902 as ''Charlottenburger Sport-Club 1902''. In 1911, they merged with ''Sport-Club Westen 05'' and changed their club colors from yellow and blue ...
and organized by SCC EVENTS. The half marathon is categorized as a Bronze Label Road Race by World Athletics
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body fo ...
.
History
The story of the Berlin half marathon reflects a major part of the history of the German capital. Its predecessors came fromEast
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...
and West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
. The race, as it exists today, arose in 1990 from the ''Berliner Friedenslauf'' (Berlin Peace Run) which took place in East Berlin since 1982 and the ''SCC Half Marathon'' in the western part of the city.
The ''Berliner Friedenslauf'' covered various distances, among others a 20-kilometre race and a marathon. The event was established by the government of the GDR and served not only as a sporting event but also as an important propaganda tool.
The ''SCC Half Marathon'' on the other side had local character and was designed to be the final test in preparation for the Berlin marathon, which took place four weeks later.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the ensuing collapse of the GDR, the support for the ''Berliner Friedenslauf'' also diminished. So the former organizer Stefan Senkel quickly had to find a new partner to save the race. SCC-RUNNING, the organizer of the Berlin marathon, joined. Both parties agreed on one distance: a half marathon. Thus, there is only one major half marathon in Berlin since 1990.
Over the years the Berlin half marathon increased in size and popularity. Today it is by far the biggest half marathon race in Germany, with a record 36,000 participants in 2018.
The 40th anniversary of the Generali Berlin half marathon, which was planned to be held on April 5, 2020, was announced cancelled on 12 March. The decision came from the Berlin authorities as a response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Course records
Running
*Men: 0:58:42, Eric Kiptanui (), 2018 *Women: 1:05:46,Sifan Hassan
Sifan Hassan ( om, Siifan Hassan; born 1 January 1993) is an Ethiopian-born Dutch middle- and long-distance runner. She completed an unprecedented triple at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics winning gold medals in both the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres, ...
(), 2019
Inline Skating
*Men: 0:30:11, Ewen Fernandez (), 2017 *Women: 0:36:22, Jana Gegner (), 2005Wheelchair
*Men: 0:55:54, Tomasz Hamerlak (), 1997 *Women: 0:56:54, Yvonne Sehmisch (), 2007Handbike
*Men: 0:32:47, Olaf Heine (), 2016 *Women: 0:38:40, Christiane Reppe (), 2014Past winners
Running
Half Marathon
Berlin Peace Run (20 kilometer)
Inline Skating
/ref>
References
;List of winnersAssociation of Road Racing Statisticians (2011-04-04). Retrieved on 2011-04-09.
External links
* {{IAAF Road Race Label Events Half marathons in Germany Sports competitions in Berlin Athletics in Berlin Inline speed skating competitions