The 2021 BMW Berlin Marathon is a marathon held on 26 September 2021 in Berlin, Germany. It is the 47th edition of the annual Berlin Marathon. The Berlin marathon distance is 42 km in length and the course is starts and finishes in the Tiergarten.
Watch the BMW Berlin Marathon 2021 live stream on NBCSN, ARD, RBB, CBC channels. Guide for the 47th Berlin Marathon race watch online free from anywhere, when the race is live coverage, TV channel, time, highlights and results. Anyone can enjoy this greatest event of the year.
BMW Berlin Marathon 2021 Time schedule:
- 7:00am – 11:00am (UTC)
- 9:00 – 13:00 (Central European)
- 10:00 – 14:00 (Nairobi, Kenya)
- 16:00 – 20:00 (Tokyo)
- 5:00pm – 9:00pm (Sydney, Australia)
- 3:00am – 7:00am (US Eastern)
- 4:00am – 8:00am (Buenos Aires, ARG)
Berlin Marathon 2021 Streaming TV channels:
- ARD – World-wide
- RBB – Germany
- CBC – Canada
- In the US NBCSN will broadcast this event live
More information about Berlin Marathon
The Berlin Marathon is a marathon that has been held annually since 1974 in the city of Berlin, capital of Germany, to cover the 42,195 kilometers of the event. This competition is one of the six events that make up the World Marathon Majors, an international competition that, since 2006, regroups the 5 great marathons of the world (New York, Boston, Chicago, London and Berlin), since 2013 it has also been included in the calendar the Tokyo Marathon.
The first Berlin marathon was held in 1974 with the participation of 286 runners. On September 27, 1981, the course of the race ran, for the first time, through the main roads and avenues of East Berlin, starting at the Reichstag and finishing at the Kurfürstendamm. In 1985, more than 10,000 runners were registered, specifically 11,814 participants. On September 30, 1990, only 3 days before the date of the Reunification of Germany, 25,000 athletes crossed the Brandenburg Gate, then integrated into what was the Berlin Wall. The test was won, in its male version by Steve Moneghetti with a time of 2h 08m 16s and in its female version by the German Uta Pippig. In 1998 the record number of participants was reached, 28,000 athletes.
The route of the Berlin Marathon is considered by specialists as very fast, which makes it conducive to achieving good marks. In 2001, the Japanese Naoko Takahashi became the first woman to descend the barrier of 2h 20m, with a time of 2h 19m 46. In the men’s category, the best recent records have been achieved by the Kenyan Paul Tergat (2h 04m 55s in 2003), and the Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie, who set a new world record in the 2008 edition with 2h 03m 59s.
In the 2011 edition, Kenyan Patrick Makau Musyoki won the race and set a new world record with 2h 03m 38s, beating Haile Gebrselassie’s record in the 2008 edition by 21 seconds. Two years later, in In the 2013 edition, Kenyan Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich broke the world record and set a time of 2h 03m 23s.
There are also other categories represented in the marathon: skates, skateboards, and even a mini-marathon for the youngest (4.2195 km).
The big running events began on November 8, 1964 in West Berlin. On this day the first Berlin cross-country run took place on the Teufelsberg with over 700 participants. A group around Horst Milde organized this run after they were inspired by a race at Le Mans. In the following years the SCC-Cross at Teufelsberg developed into a permanent institution in the Berlin sports scene.
Ten years later, the 1st Berlin People’s Marathon took place in 1974. Horst Milde was inspired by a marathon that was organized by the Berlin Athletics Association on October 14, 1973 with start and finish at the Mommsen Stadium with 92 participants. Convinced that there is a far greater interest among the popular runners in a run over this distance, Milde organized a marathon on the same route the following year. Of the 286 registered runners, 244 reached the finish. The start was in front of the Mommsen Stadium on Waldschulallee and a commuter route in Grunewald, along the AVUS, almost to the Wannsee lido. [2] Günter Hallas (born January 18, 1942) won the men’s race in 2:44:53 h, and the women’s former middle-distance runner Jutta von Haase won her first competition over a distance longer than 1500 m in 3:22:01 h. Hallas has started 34 times in the Berlin Marathon, Bernd Hübner has two more participations with 36 Berlin Marathons so far.
From 1975 the route was changed a little. The start and finish were moved to the Mommsen Stadium. The second event was also aimed at the Berliner Volksläufer. A married couple won: Ralf Bochröder in the men and Kristin Bochröder in the women. In 1977 the German Marathon Championship was integrated into the event and started an hour later. During these championships, Christa Vahlensieck set an unofficial world record with 2: 34: 47.5 hours. When the French occupation forces carried out the 25 km de Berlin as the first city run in Berlin in May 1981, the plan to move the marathon to the city center matured. The organizer SCC initially encountered incomprehension from the authorities. For example, Horst Milde, Klaus Huebner, the then police chief of Berlin, is said to have been introduced with the sentence “There is a madman sitting over there – he wants to run through the city.” The organizer was initially informed by the police that the streets were there for the cars. Although the Berlin Senate did not object to the race, there were still some political hurdles that could be overcome with the help of the Western allies – Horst Milde had turned to John Kornblum, the head of the US mission.
In 1981 the run finally left the Grunewald and became the city marathon. The start was on the meadow in front of the Reichstag building, the route led past Checkpoint Charlie and the finish line was on Kurfürstendamm. It was possible for wheelchair users to take part in the race on the asphalt track. With 3486 registered participants, the Berlin Marathon in 1981 was already the largest German city run. [7] Due to the steadily increasing number of participants, the start was moved to Straße des 17. Juni in 1987. In addition, for the first time, the organizer engaged over 30 music groups along the route. The pupils’ mini marathon celebrated its premiere in 1989. The idea was to let teams of ten students run the last 4.2195 km of the marathon. Adding ten students together, this resulted in the entire marathon distance. The concept was very popular and still exists.
On September 30, 1990, three days before German reunification, the race led for the first time through the Brandenburg Gate and partly through what was then the eastern part of the city. However, the start continued in the opposite direction on Straße des 17. Juni. The great interest in this race made it necessary to reject registrations for the first time: the participant limit was reached with 25,000. For the first time, a marathon was broadcast live on German television, and there was even a live broadcast in Japan. [8]
In 1994 electronic timekeeping was introduced with the help of the ChampionChip. In the same year, the wheelchair marathon race of the World Disabled Championships was held in Berlin, which Heinz Frei won with a world best time of 1:22:12 h. In 1995, Sammy Lelei ran the second fastest time ever with 2:07:02 h and missed the world best time by just twelve seconds.
In 1997 inline skaters took to the track for the first time. For the 25th Berlin Marathon in 1998, the record of participants from the 1990 run was exceeded for the first time with 32,877 participants. Ronaldo da Costa won with 2:06:05 h and he broke Belayneh Dinsamo’s ten-year-old world best (2:06:50 h). Ronaldo da Costa was the first runner to run a marathon at an average speed of more than 20 km / h. In the following year 1999 the world best performance of women fell: Tegla Loroupe won with 2:20:43 h. In the men’s race, two times under 2:07 h were run for the first time. Thus, Berlin was number one on the list of the fastest marathons. Power walkers took part in the run for the first time. In 2001 there was another world record. The Japanese Olympic champion Naoko Takahashi was the first woman to run under 2:20 hours with 2:19:46 hours. The run was broadcast live in Japan and achieved audience ratings of over 50 percent.
After the Berlin Marathon of Skaters had become the largest of its kind in 2002 with over 7,000 finishers, execution was postponed from 2003 to the evening before the main run. In addition, the route was changed in 2003 so that the destination was no longer on Kurfürstendamm, but on the Brandenburg Gate. The start was moved to Straße des 17. Juni in front of the Brandenburg Gate and Straße Unter den Linden became the home straight. This eliminated the time-consuming transport of the participant bags, which the athletes could always hand in at the start. A world record was achieved for the 30th Berlin Marathon, which was later recognized as the first official marathon world record. Paul Tergat from Kenya was the first man to run under 2:05 hours with 2:04:55 hours, his compatriot and pacemaker Sammy Korir only needed one second more. In 2004 Mark Milde, who had been responsible for the top runners since 1999, replaced his father Horst Milde as race director. A competition for hand bikers has been part of the Berlin Marathon since 2004.
Wilson Kipsang at the world record run, Berlin Marathon 2013
In 2006 the five largest marathon events in the world founded the World Marathon Majors running series; these included the Berlin Marathon, the Boston Marathon, the London Marathon, the Chicago Marathon and the New York City Marathon. From 2013 the Tokyo Marathon was added as the sixth event in the series. The entire series runs for two years and is endowed with 500,000 US dollars each for the best man and the best woman. From 2006 to 2009, Haile Gebrselassie was the only runner to date to win the Berlin Marathon four times in a row. After crossing the finish line with a new world record in 2007, Gebrselassie was the first man to run under 2:04 hours (2:03:59) in 2008, which ultimately made him the darling of the Berlin sports crowd. Also in 2008, Irina Mikitenko was successful and won the women’s race with a German record of 2:19:19 h.
In 2011, the car manufacturer BMW replaced the retail chain Real as the title sponsor. Last year’s winner Patrick Makau met with world record holder Gebrselas in the race.