Kenyan favourite Eliud Kipchoge shrugged off mid-race footwear problems to win the Berlin marathon on Sunday with a personal best time of two hours, four minutes and one second but missed out on a world record by more than a minute. The in-form 30-year-old, a winner in London in April, proved a master of the flat, inner-city course, regarded as the fastest in the world, even as his insoles slipped out of his shoes early in the race, winning ahead of fellow Kenyan Eliud Kiptanui and Ethiopia's Feyisa Lilesa.
"At some point they started coming out but I had no time to remove them," Kipchoge told reporters. "But when you run without soles there is a lot of impact. There was a lot of pain with every step."
"The world record was really my aim but it was not my day for it," he said. "But I ran a personal best and I am happy and I will come back next year for it."
Fellow Kenyan Gladys Cherono clocked 2:19:25, winning the women's race ahead of Ethiopians Aberu Kebede and Meseret Hailu.
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