Deena Kastor earns sixth World Major Marathon star in Berlin

On Sunday, former American women’s marathon record holder, Deena Kastor, 49, finished the 2022 Berlin Marathon in 2:45:12 to place 48th overall in the women’s field. Kastor earned her sixth star with her results in Berlin, for having finished all six World Major Marathons. She is only the fourth woman to achieve all six world majors, in addition to the Olympic and World Athletics Championships marathons.

Kastor had hopes of hitting the U.S. Olympic Trials standard of 2:37:00 in Berlin, but came up short. She finished second in the women’s 45-49 age group.

The other three women who have achieved all eight marathons are two-time world champion and 2017 Boston Marathon champion Edna Kiplagat of Kenya, Nuta Olaru of Romania and Aly Dixon of the U.K.

Kastor has raced the other five majors (Boston, London, Tokyo, Chicago and New York City), and although she was set to race Berlin in 2019, an ankle injury dashed those plans. Kastor is one of the top marathoners in American history, and up until this year, she held the national record at 2:19:36, set at the 2006 London Marathon, which she won. (She won the Chicago Marathon in 2005.)

Keira D’Amato broke Kastor’s record at the Houston Marathon in January 2022, when she ran 2:19:12; some predicted she would run even faster in Berlin on Sunday, but a mere nine weeks after her eighth-place finish at the World Athletics Championships, she was two minutes off the record in Berlin, with a sixth-place finish in 2:21:28.

Today at ⁦@berlinmarathonE⁩ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I’m a #sixstarfinsher thanks to @asics #MetaSpeedSky magic pic.twitter.com/PqIo50IsCB

— Deena Kastor ?? (@DeenaKastor) September 25, 2022

Kastor also held the American half-marathon record of 1:07:34 until 2018, when Molly Huddle ran 1:07:25. She also won a bronze medal in the marathon at the 2004 Athens Olympics. She ran the Tokyo Marathon in 2019.

Kastor’s goal of completing all six World Majors is a goal held by many marathoners (both amateur and pro) around the world, including the great Eliud Kipchoge, who bested his world record time in the Berlin marathon with a time of 2:01:09.