Ethiopia’s Mikiyas Barega Wins Rain-Soaked JTBC Seoul Marathon in His Debut

Photo: hojusaram, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (file photo, March 2008). Runners pass Seoul City Hall during the Seoul International Marathon, a different race from the JTBC Seoul Marathon.

Ethiopia’s Mikiyas Barega won the JTBC Seoul Marathon on Sunday, Nov. 1, in his first race at the distance, beating a field that included Kenyan runners with personal bests four to five minutes faster than his winning time. About 30,000 amateur runners followed the elite field through a rain-soaked capital on a new course that started at Gwanghwamun Square for the first time.

Yonhap put Barega’s time at 2 hours, 10 minutes, 0 seconds. Ethiopia’s Abebaw Muniye was second in 2:10:08 and Kenya’s Mike Chematot third in 2:10:28, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily.

An upset in the elite race

Barega came to Seoul with a 1:01:34 half marathon, run in Barcelona in February, but no full marathon on his record. He beat Kenyan runners whose personal bests fall in the 2:05 to 2:06 range, JoongAng Daily reported. “I’m so happy to win on my first attempt,” he said, adding that he felt good and picked up the pace in the later stages.

He is the younger brother of Selemon Barega, who won the men’s 10,000 meters at the Tokyo Olympics. The paper said the younger Barega took up serious track training only in his second year of high school and had run just as a hobby before that. He said he learned a lot from watching his brother train.

His time was five to six minutes off world-class marathon marks. The weather played a part. Rain fell from early morning, and temperatures of 7 to 9 degrees Celsius (45 to 48 degrees Fahrenheit) were 2 to 3 degrees Celsius colder than on race day last year. “If the weather had been better, I think we would have seen some good times,” said Hwang Young-jo, head coach of the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation’s marathon team, who called this year’s course a little easier than last year’s.

Korean winners: a debutant and a fall at 10 km

Hwangbo Han-bin of Korea National Sport University won the domestic men’s race in 2:16:45. Yonhap described him as a middle-distance specialist who moved up to the marathon this year and won on his second try; JoongAng Daily said it was the first full marathon he had finished. He said he ran cautiously early, which left him strength for the closing kilometers, and that his next goal is to get under 2:10.

Jeong Da-eun of the Samsung Electronics athletics club won the domestic women’s race in 2:33:16 despite falling at the 10-kilometer mark and scraping her knee and fingers, Yonhap reported. “It was cold, so my body felt stiff until the 5-kilometer mark, and then I fell at 10 kilometers,” she told JoongAng Daily, saying she wants to run in the 2:20s next year.

In the six-athlete wheelchair race, Japan’s Akifumi Ohasi, as JoongAng Daily spelled his name, won in 46:10. Kawano Taishiro of Japan won the men’s amateur race in 2:19:19, and Noh Yu-yeon took the women’s amateur title in 2:40:04, the paper said.

Results at a glance

Source: Yonhap; Korea JoongAng Daily. JoongAng Daily’s photo caption gives Barega’s time as 2:10:01.

By TBR’s calculation, the top three elite men finished within 28 seconds of one another, and the fastest Korean man was 6 minutes, 45 seconds behind the winner.

A new route from Gwanghwamun to Olympic Park

Until last year the full marathon started at World Cup Park in western Seoul. Organizers moved the start to Gwanghwamun Square in the city center this year to ease traffic congestion, JoongAng Daily reported. The course ran past Sungnyemun Gate, Euljiro 3-ga, Sinseol-dong, Gunja and Konkuk University stations and Seokchon Lake before finishing near Olympic Park in Songpa District. A separate 10-kilometer race ran from World Cup Park in Mapo District to Yeouido Park. With fewer climbs and more flat stretches, the new course had raised hopes of faster times before the rain.

Moving a marathon into the heart of a capital meant early closures. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Sejong-daero, the start area, would be closed from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. local time, and sections near Sinseol-dong Station, Gunja Bridge, Jamsil Bridge and Olympic Park from 7:54 a.m. to 1:35 p.m., JKN reported. The agency planned to deploy 1,825 officers, including traffic police, and post 1,770 signs and banners, while the city temporarily rerouted buses. About 35,000 people, including 5,000 staff, were expected.

Boston readers will know the routine: road closures, rerouted buses and a city that plans its day around runners. For the hometown race, see TBR’s Boston Marathon 2027 guide to dates and qualifying times. Seoul’s streets were busy the night before as well, when Halloween crowds returned to Itaewon.

The race is hosted by JTBC, a broadcaster affiliated with the Korea JoongAng Daily, as the paper notes; TBR checked the results against Yonhap’s report.

Sources

• Korea JoongAng Daily: Rain fails to dampen spirits of 30,000 runners at JTBC Seoul Marathon
• Yonhap: Hwangbo Han-bin and Jeong Da-eun win JTBC Seoul Marathon domestic divisions (Korean)
• JKN: Marathon from Gwanghwamun to Olympic Park on Nov. 1, traffic restrictions in downtown Seoul

Additional sources

• Run With Me Seoul: JTBC Seoul Marathon 2026 course and road closures