Winner of 2025 Doha Marathon’s Al-Adam category sets national record in Berlin.
Marathon runner Abdullah Al-Zaraa recorded a new national record for a Qatar-born runner at the Berlin Marathon held over the weekend, the Qatar News Agency said on Wednesday.
Al-Zaraa finished the marathon, considered one of the world’s best, in 2 hours, 30 minutes, and 34 seconds.
The timing was enough for Al-Zaraa to qualify for various other famed marathons in Chicago, Tokyo, Boston, London, and New York.
“Al-Zaraa’s qualification for the world’s major marathons is an additional achievement for Qatar,” QNA said in its report, “as the runner will have multiple opportunities to achieve new achievements in Qatari athletics.”
Al-Zaraa improved on his timing of 2 hours, 47 minutes and four seconds at the Doha Marathon 2025, where he finished first in the Al-Adam category tailored for the Qatari participants at the event marked as Gold Label by World Athletics.
Similarly, Al-Zaraa had also clinched second place at Samla 2024, considered to be the toughest endurance race in Qatar.
In a race featuring six stages, including swimming, running, kayaking, cycling, and off-road running over the course of 200 kilometres, Al-Zaraa pocketed QAR 300,000 (about $82,000), finishing behind Faisal Hassan Al-Qahtani.
Both the Doha Marathon and Samla are set to return in what both claim to be their biggest editions yet.
Early registrations for the 14th edition of the Doha Marathon, set to be held on January 16 next year, opened in September. It is expected to gather more than 20,000 participants from all over the world across categories.
Similarly, the first-ever international edition of Samla, which was previously only open for Qatari males, is set to be held on January 24. Registrations for the historic endurance race closed in August.
