Kenya took both titles at the Generali Cologne Marathon on 4 October, and both winners left the course records behind them. Bernard Kiprop Koech won the men's race in 2:06:09, while Jackline Chepngeno took the women's title in 2:21:33, each earning a €25,000 course-record bonus.
Koech's run took 45 seconds off the previous men's mark of 2:06:54, set in 2025 by Barnaba Kipkoech. Ethiopia's Habtamu Birlew was second in 2:06:29, and Raymond Choge of Kenya completed the podium in 2:07:20. Five of the top six men were Kenyan, in a race that had been billed in the build-up as a contest between several runners capable of challenging the record.
The women's record fell by a far wider margin. Chepngeno's 2:21:33 beat the 2:25:35 that had stood since 2012 by almost four minutes, a mark that had barely featured in the pre-race talk, which had centred on defending champion Fantu Shugi targeting the record. Shugi ran 2:24:25 and finished second, a time that would have been inside the old record had Chepngeno not been in the race, and Ayantu Kumela was third in 2:25:51. All of the top seven women finished inside 2:28:25.
The performances came on a day when the event itself also set a mark, with more than 41,000 participants taking part in the 28th edition, the largest field in the race's history. Cologne has built its identity on a mix of elite and recreational running, with a course that passes through the city's landmarks and finishes by the cathedral, and the combination of a record-sized event and two record-breaking winners underlines how far the race has moved up the autumn calendar.
For both winners the results arrive in a busy week for the sport, with Chicago on 11 October and a string of other autumn marathons to follow. Cologne's elite programme offers a bonus for course records, and this year it paid out twice, a result that may help the organisers argue for an even stronger field in 2027.