Olympic champion Tamirat Tola wins the Beijing Marathon in a course record 2:03:10
The 35-year-old Ethiopian took almost four minutes off a record that had stood since 2019, leading an Ethiopian podium in which all three men broke the old mark. Anchinalu Dessie Genaneh defended the women’s title in 2:20:36.
Tamirat Tola, the Olympic marathon champion, won the Beijing Marathon on 18 October in 2 hours 3 minutes 10 seconds, a course record by almost four minutes.
The 35-year-old Ethiopian led an Ethiopian sweep of the men’s podium. Muktar Edris was second in 2:04:34 and Adane Kebede Gebre third in 2:05:10, according to Xinhua. All three men finished inside the previous record of 2:07:06, set by Kenya’s Mathew Kipkoech Kisorio in 2019.
China News Service, the state news agency, described Tola’s time as the fastest marathon ever run in mainland China. It was also Tola’s first appearance at the race.
A record that had stood for seven years
The Beijing Marathon, first held in 1981, is the oldest marathon in mainland China. This year’s race started at Tiananmen Square at 7.30am and finished in the central area of the Olympic Park, and doubled as the Chinese national marathon championships.
The course record had not fallen since 2019. Tola took 3 minutes 56 seconds off it, and Edris and Gebre, behind him, were also more than a minute and a half inside it.
Tola, who won the world title in Eugene in 2022 and Olympic gold in Paris in 2024, came into the race with a personal best of 2:02:59. He ran that time in finishing fifth at the London Marathon in April 2026, the race in which Sabastian Sawe ran 1:59:30.
His time in Beijing was also faster than the winning time at the Amsterdam Marathon on the same morning, where Lemi Berhanu won in 2:03:33. Berhanu was the defending Beijing champion, having won the 2025 race in 2:08:10, according to World Athletics results.
Genaneh defends, Tsering Tsomo leads the Chinese
Anchinalu Dessie Genaneh of Ethiopia retained the women’s title in 2:20:36, according to Xinhua and China News Service. She won in 2025 in 2:26:08, according to World Athletics, so she was more than five minutes faster this time.
China’s Tsering Tsomo was second in a personal best of 2:23:48, China News Service reported. She had won silver in the women’s marathon at the recent Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. Lu Ying was third, also in a personal best, of 2:24:24.
Tsering Tsomo also won the women’s national championship, ahead of Lu Ying and Xia Yuyu. In the men’s national championship, Chen Tianyu won ahead of Jiang Fakun and Xie Yunce. China News Service reported that Chen had previously won the domestic men’s title at the Beijing Marathon in 2023 and 2024. Times for the Chinese men were not given in the reports we read.
Demand far beyond the field
The race was capped at 32,000 runners. Organisers said more than 265,000 people applied for a place, according to Xinhua, roughly eight applicants for every start.
The result adds Beijing to a long list of course records in the 2026 marathon season. On the same morning, Buze Diriba broke the women’s course record in Amsterdam.
Tola’s next race has not been announced.
