The 2029 World Marathon bronze medallist, Amos Kipruto will headline 39th edition of the Hamburg Marathon slated for April 27, 2025 in Hamburg, Germany.
The 32 year-old who comes to this race with a life time best of 2:03.13 that he got three years ago at the Tokyo Marathon, where he finished behind the fastest man alive in the world, Eliud Kipchoge. The same year Kipruto achieved his biggest career win when he took the London Marathon with a time of 2:04.39. Kipruto ran sub 2:05 times in both 2023 and 2024. With his life time he is the joint fastest entrant in the history of the Haspa Marathon. Back in 2018 fellow-Kenyan Emmanuel Mutai competed here with exactly the same personal record.
For the first time Hamburg features three men with personal bests of sub 2:04. Besides Kipruto the Ethiopians Guye Adola and Kinde Atanaw have also achieved such results.
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Adola’s whose life time best of 2:03.46 makes him the second fastest runner on the start list, ran this time in a brilliant debut performance in Berlin back in 2017, when he challenged Kipchoge. He led the greatest Of All Time until shortly before the 40k mark and then finished runner-up with an unofficial world debut record. His career was often hampered by injury and turned into a rollercoaster ride. Adola has not run in major races recently, but at the age of 34 he could still produce a strong performance.
Adola’s compatriot, Atanaw ran his personal best of 2:03.51 back in 2019 when he took the top honors in Valencia.
Kenya’s Philemon Kiplimo might be the man to watch as his recent performances speaks volume of him as he went under the 2:05 mark in Berlin in 2023, when he improved his personal best to 2:04.56. Kiplimo makes his return to this course after finishing in third place with a strong 2:05.37.
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Another top contender is the reigning European Marathon Champion Richard Ringer who prioritized competing in Germany’s major spring marathon instead of defending his European title at the continental championships in April. The 35 year-old returns with great memories to the Haspa Marathon Hamburg. It was here where he improved to 2:08.08 two years ago, just dipping under the Olympic qualifying time and taking a fine 6th place in a strong field. “The course and the atmosphere at the Haspa Marathon are terrific. So opting to return to Hamburg was a straightforward decision for me. This time I will focus my training even more on this race to make sure that I will be in top form on the day,” said Ringer.
“We are still assembling the elite fields. But as it stands we can look forward to a fascinating men’s contest. With regard to the fastest runners on the start list we will have the strongest field in our history,” said chief organiser Frank Thaleiser during today’s press conference in Hamburg.
15,000 entries have been registered, the biggest number for many years.
