The Haspa Marathon Hamburg celebrates its 40th edition on Sunday 26 April with a strong international field and conditions that organisers are quietly optimistic could produce the fastest finish in the race's history. The event rolls off Karolinenstraße at 08:30 local time with around 25,000 entrants across the marathon, 10 kilometre and relay distances, and a broadcast window that for the first time will run live on ARD nationally across the four-hour elite window. Hamburg remains the biggest spring marathon in Germany and, with Berlin's weather lottery now two months out and Frankfurt five months away, sits as the season's reference point for domestic form.
Kenya's Bernard Koech, the 2023 champion in 2:04:09, returns with by some distance the fastest entry time in the men's field and a clearer build than when he finished fifth here last spring. Koech has run three races since September without a DNF — including a 60:08 half in Valencia in October that suggested he was comfortably back to his 2023 level — and will be the man the domestic hopefuls have to follow early. Stephen Kissa, the Ugandan national record holder from his 2:04:48 in Hamburg in 2022, is also on the start list, as is Ethiopia's Gerba Dibaba and the German contingent led by Sebastian Hendel, who has improved to a 2:07:33 personal best since his 2:08:51 here two years ago.
The debut to watch is Aaron Bienenfeld, the German who opened 2026 with a breakthrough 61:15 over 13.1 miles at the Houston Half Marathon in January. Bienenfeld's coach, Valentin Pfeil, has called Hamburg a 'controlled first attempt' and is aiming for something inside 2:10 — a split that, for a debutant, would slot him fifth on the German all-time list. The race will also mark the return of the 36-year-old Dutch veteran Abdi Nageeye, who has downplayed expectations after a tricky Tokyo in March but is expected to use Sunday as the springboard into a Rotterdam defence later in the year.
The women's race features a deep Ethiopian trio: 2024 Dubai Marathon champion Tigist Ketema (2:16:07 PB), 2019 London silver medallist Degitu Azimeraw (2:17:58) and the 2022 Hamburg winner Sichala Kumeshi, whose 2:23:03 victory three years ago remains the course record. Kenya's Viola Chepngeno and Nazret Weldu of Eritrea round out a six-strong sub-2:22 tier and should test any pace commitment from Ketema, who told German television at the press conference on Friday that 2:15 was 'a good time' if conditions allowed. A clean north-easterly is forecast for Sunday morning with temperatures between 7 and 11 degrees Celsius — close to identical to the day Koech ran 2:04:09 in 2023.
For German athletics the stakes are greater than usual. National selector Rüdiger Harksen has confirmed that two of the three marathon slots for the European Championships in Birmingham will be decided off Hamburg performance, with the third closed until the autumn. Hendel, Bienenfeld, Simon Boch and Filimon Abraham are the four candidates in play on the men's side; for the women, Domenika Mayer, Rabea Schöneborn and Katharina Steinruck are all entered. Add in the defending world leader on the men's side and a newly fast northern European course, and Hamburg's quiet 40th-edition birthday may produce a rather louder race than planned.