Esther Pfeiffer has impressively continued her upward trend in the half marathon: the 28-year-old runner, who competes for Düsseldorf Athletics, won the race in Cologne with a significant improvement on her personal best to 67:28 minutes. After Esther Pfeiffer had already improved to 69:15 in Berlin in the spring, she was now 1:47 minutes faster in Cologne. This moved her up to third place in the list of the fastest German female runners of all time. The German record for the 21.0975 km is held by Melat Kejeta (Laufteam Kassel) with 65:18. Second fastest in the national all-time list is Konstanze Klosterhalfen (Bayer Leverkusen/65:41). Esther Pfeiffer also broke the course record in Cologne, which had been set by Sabrina Mockenhaupt in 2008 with 68:51. However, today’s times can no longer be compared with previous results due to performance-enhancing carbon running shoes.
Esther Pfeiffer, who also set a German best time for the year in Cologne and was accompanied by her husband Hendrik Pfeiffer as pacemaker, ran to victory virtually unchallenged. Cara Zollenkopf (TV Refrath) finished second in 74:05, a long way behind, ahead of Hanna Klein (LAV Stadtwerke Tübingen). The 2023 European indoor 3,000 m champion ran 74:10 in her half marathon debut. For Esther Pfeiffer, it was already her third half marathon victory in Cologne after 2022 (75:53) and 2024 (69:49). Two years ago, she also won her marathon debut in Cologne. She ran 2:37:00, also without any notable competition. Esther Pfeiffer could certainly achieve a top German time in her next marathon.
The men’s race was won by Jona Bodirsky (TSV 05 Roth) in 63:11 minutes ahead of Mamiyo Hirsuato (Ethiopia/63:17) and Tom Thurley (Potsdamer Laufclu/63:56). Hendrik Pfeiffer (Düsseldorf Athletics) paced his wife and finished seventh in 67:31.
For the first time in a long time, the Cologne Marathon had once again attracted a group of top international runners for the race. This had a noticeable impact on the performance: Barnaba Kipkoech won the race with a course record of 2:06:54 hours. The 32-year-old Kenyan, who also beat his personal best, improved the Cologne record from 2012 by 43 seconds. Thirteen years ago, his compatriot Alfred Kering ran 2:07:37. The last time a time under 2:10:00 was achieved in Cologne was in 2016. Kenyan runners Boniface Kibiwott and Onesmus Kiplimo finished a distant second and third in 2:08:15 and 2:08:31 respectively. Jonathan Dahlke (Bayer Leverkusen) was the best German runner in seventh place with a time of 2:18:10. He had run 2:15:42 in London last year.
The fastest woman was Ethiopian Fantu Shugi, who crossed the finish line in 2:29:12. This is the fastest winning time since 2015. However, the course record of 2:25:34 was not in danger. Zinash Mekonnen (Ethiopia) came second in 2:30:38, followed by Faith Chepkoech (Kenya/2:31:00) in third place. None of the top German runners took part in the race.
Text: Jörg Wenig
Photo: Cologne Marathon/Norbert Wilhelmi
