Berlin- With 5,445 participants, the BMW BERLIN MARATHON once again emphasised its importance as the largest inline marathon in the world. Skaters from 67 countries participated. That was officially honoured before the race with the presentation of a Guinness World Records certificate.

“This victory is really important for me, as I won for the first time in a mass sprint,” Bart Swings (Powerslide Matter Team) stated after the race. After several attempts by various skaters to break away, the elite field reached the finish as one. Bart Swings pulled off a photo finish ahead of Gary Hekman (Bont Skates Team) from the Netherlands and Patxi Peula (EOSkates-BOOM) of Spain. “Due to all of the breakaway attempts and changes in pace, today’s race was much for exhausting than it was in previous years when I won with a solo effort,” Swings said. But this year’s winning time of 59:59 could not reach his course record time of 56:49. “The agitated way we raced today did not permit it,” the Belgian said. 

The women’s race was quite different. Just five kilometres after the start, Manon Kamminga (Powerslide Matter Team) made her first breakaway attempt – and was successful. “I kept looking around and thought at first that the field was getting closer again. But I just kept going, and in the end, I skated alone for an hour,” said Manon Kamminga to describe her race. The Dutch racer finished in 1:08:38, more than four minutes ahead of her teammate Katharina Rumpus (1:12:51) from Darmstadt, who finished second. For Kamminga, this was her third BMW BERLIN MARATHON victory after winning in 2013 and2014. Rumpus exclaimed, “It is a great feeling to win the mass sprint of the main field. After Manon’s attack, the race of the main field was pretty slow so I was able to keep my strength for the final sprint.”  Last year’s champion, Sandrine Tas (Powerslide Matter Team) from Belgium, was the third woman to cross the finish line.