Kenya's Kwemoi Ndorobo sets Venice Marathon course record; Jerono wins women's race

Kenya's Peter Kwemoi Ndorobo won the 40th Wizz Air Venicemarathon in a course record of 2hr 7min 31sec on 25 October 2026, and his compatriot Jackline Jerono won the women's race in 2hr 26min 16sec, the race organisers said.

The double takes Kenya's tally of Venice victories to 32, 16 in the men's race and 16 in the women's. Kwemoi's time was 10 seconds faster than the previous course record, the 2:07:41 that Uganda's Solomon Mutai ran to win on 22 October 2023, as listed in World Athletics results. Three men finished under 2:08:00.

On the same day in Germany, Ethiopians Jirata Dinki and Zeineba Yimer won the 43rd Mainova Frankfurt Marathon in 2:05:26 and 2:19:45. Kenya's Benard Biwott, the Frankfurt winner in 2024, finished third in the men's race in 2:06:23, the Frankfurt organisers said.

In Venice, a group of 15 men reached halfway together in 1:03:39. After the pacemakers had done their work, Kwemoi began to push the pace on the Ponte della Libertà, the flat, straight bridge of almost 4km by which the course reaches Venice. He opened a gap of a few seconds over Ethiopia's Berhanu Tarto Yatede and stayed ahead to the finish.

Berhanu was second in a personal best of 2:07:47. Kenya's Dikson Simba Nyakundi was third in 2:07:56, also a personal best. Kenyans filled four more of the top eight places: Kipsang Collins Kemboi was fourth in 2:08:06, Evans Kipkorir fifth in 2:08:41, Felix Kimutai seventh in 2:09:00 and Wesley Ledama eighth in 2:09:01.

"I am very happy because I won a prestigious race, but above all because I improved my personal best by almost four minutes," Kwemoi said in a statement issued by the organisers. Andrea Giocondi, the race's elite athletes manager, said he first noticed the Kenyan in February, when Kwemoi won the Circeo Marathon.

The women's race had five athletes together at halfway in 1:14:02. Jerono and Ethiopia's Alemaz Samuel Teshale entered Venice shoulder to shoulder. At the last refreshment station Jerono dropped her bottle and had to stop to pick it up, losing a few metres, but she closed the gap, overtook Teshale and pulled away.

Her 2:26:16 is the third-fastest women's time in the history of the race and more than five minutes faster than her previous personal best. Teshale, running her first marathon, was second in 2:26:23 and Ethiopia's Worknesh Alemu Mola third in 2:28:46. Kenya's Domtyla Lagat Chepkemboi finished fifth in 2:33:34.

"I am delighted to have won in Venice during its 40th edition, and I am very happy to have set a new personal best," Jerono said in the organisers' statement.

More than 24,000 people took part across the event's three distances, 55 per cent of them from abroad.

In Frankfurt, where the race was run in wet and windy conditions for long stretches, Dinki won by 20 seconds from Germany's European champion Amanal Petros, who clocked 2:05:46. Petros is the first German to make the men's podium in Frankfurt in more than 25 years.

Biwott, 24, won on his marathon debut in Frankfurt in 2024 in 2:05:54. He went on to win the Paris Marathon on 13 April 2025 in 2:05:25, which remains his personal best on his World Athletics profile.

Yimer, 28, came into the race with a best of 2:18:47, set when she finished third in Barcelona in the spring. Germany's Blanka Dörfel, 24, was second on her debut in 2:20:46, the second-fastest marathon ever by a German woman, and Ethiopia's Beriha Gebreslasie was third in 2:22:46.

The best-placed Kenyan women in Frankfurt were Marion Kibor, seventh in 2:26:52, and Janet Ruguru, eighth in 2:27:36. A record 19,720 runners from 128 nations entered the Frankfurt race.