Amane Beriso wins the Valencia Marathon (© sportmedia.es)
World champion Peres Jepchirchir will take on course record-holder Amane Beriso, while another former winner Sisay Lemma will headline the men’s field for the Valencia Marathon Trinidad Alfonso Zurich – a World Athletics Platinum Label event – on 7 December.
Kenya’s Jepchirchir triumphed in Tokyo last month to add the world title to the Olympic crown she claimed in Japan in 2021. She has won three other major marathons since then – in New York, Boston and London, where she set her PB of 2:16:16 in 2024. She also has experience of winning in Valencia, in 2020 when she clocked her second-fastest marathon time of 2:17:16.
In a clash of world gold medallists, she will go up against Ethiopia’s 2023 world champion, Beriso. That world title win in Budapest was Beriso’s most recent marathon victory and it followed her Valencia success in 2022, when she ran the course record of 2:14:58, which remains her PB. She went on to secure second place in the 2023 Boston Marathon and third in last year’s Tokyo Marathon, while she was fifth at both the Paris Olympics and this year’s Boston Marathon.
They will be joined by another 2:16 marathon runner: Joyciline Jepkosgei. She ran 2:16:24 when finishing third in a London Marathon won by her Kenyan compatriot Jepchirchir in 2024 and was also runner-up in the UK capital this year. She won the London Marathon in 2021 and the New York Marathon in 2019, and she was second in Valencia in 2020.
USA’s Keira D’Amato, Ethiopia’s Fikrte Wereta and Great Britain’s Charlotte Purdue are also among the entries, as is Germany’s Gesa Krause who will make her marathon debut three months after finishing seventh in the 3000m steeplechase at the World Championships.
Ethiopia’s Lemma heads the men’s field thanks to the course record and PB of 2:01:48 he set to win in 2023. That time places him fourth on the world all-time list and he will be looking to rebound after being unable to finish while defending his Boston Marathon crown in April.
He will face four other sub-2:05 athletes in his compatriot Hailemaryam Kiros, Kenya’s Hillary Kipkoech and the German duo of Samuel Fitwi and Amanal Petros.
Like Jepchirchir, Petros made the podium at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 as he secured silver after a sprint finish battle with champion Alphonce Simbu. Petros ran his PB of 2:04:58 in Berlin in 2023 and was eighth in this year’s London Marathon.
Kiros won the Sydney Marathon in August, while Kipkoech and Fitwi both return to the scene of their respective 2:04:45 and 2:04:56 PBs from last year, when they finished just ahead of Lemma.
Elite field
Women
Amane Beriso (ETH) 2:14:58
Peres Jepchirchir (KEN) 2:16:16
Joyciline Jepkosgei (KEN) 2:16:24
Keira D’Amato (USA) 2:19:12
Fikrte Wereta (ETH) 2:21:32
Charlotte Purdue (GBR) 2:22:17
Glenrose Xaba (RSA) 2:22:22
Jessica Stenson (AUS) 2:22:56
Isobel Batt-Doyle (AUS) 2:22:59
Genevieve Gregson (AUS) 2:23:08
Mekdes Woldu (FRA) 2:23:13
Emma Bates (USA) 2:23:18
Rose Harvey (GBR) 2:23:21
Lindsay Flanagan (USA) 2:23:31
Giovanna Epis (ITA) 2:23:46
Meline Rollin (FRA) 2:24:12
Fabienne Schlump (SUI) 2:24:30
Gesa Krause (GER) debut
Men
Sisay Lemma (ETH) 2:01:48
Hailemaryam Kiros (ETH) 2:04:35
Hillary Kipkoech (KEN) 2:04:45
Samuel Fitwi (GER) 2:04:56
Amanal Petros (GER) 2:04:58
Yohei Ikeda (JPN) 2:05:12
Enock Onchari (KEN) 2:05:20
Edward Cheserek (KEN) 2:05:24
Benard Biwott (KEN) 2:05:25
Suguru Osako (JPN) 2:05:29
Nico Navarro (FRA) 2:05:53
Andy Buchanan (AUS) 2:06:22
Clayton Young (USA) 2:08:00
Vinicent Nyageo (KEN) debut
Patrick Mosin (KEN) debut
