As of: December 7th, 2025 10:44 a.m
Vice world champion Amanal Petros shattered the German record at the Valencia Marathon. The vice world champion from Hannover 96 came second on Sunday in 2:04:03 hours.
Petros showed a fantastic race and took second place behind the Kenyan winner John Korir, who needed 2:02:25 hours for the top-class 42.195 kilometers. In 2:04:03 hours, the 30-year-old was 53 seconds faster than the previous record holder Samuel Fitwi (Trier New Year’s Eve Run) in the same place a year ago.
“I’m so happy that I’ve now achieved my goal. That’s a very nice end to the year,” said the 30-year-old happily in the Sportschau interview.
Petros had already demonstrated his outstanding form this year. In September he sensationally became vice world champion in Tokyo and missed the gold medal by just three hundredths in his spectacular finish sprint. In the spring he also improved his German half marathon record in Berlin to 59:31 minutes and was the first German to stay under an hour.
Long season: “Falling into a hole on many days”
The German men had made great use of the marathon in the east of Spain in recent years: the German record fell for the fifth time in the past five years, four of them on the ultra-fast, flat course in Valencia. Most recently, Fitwi 2024 broke the record previously held by Petros, which was only two seconds slower, in 2:04:56 seconds. Now the runner from Hannover 96 is ahead again.
After the World Cup, Petros didn’t have much time to prepare for Valencia; he spent around eight weeks in the high-altitude training camp in the Kenyan marathon paradise of Iten. However, that was enough for the next coup in his special year. “My season was far too long. It wasn’t that easy, there were many days when I fell into a hole and it was difficult to get back again. But I always had hope and never gave up,” he said.