Kenyans Tegla Loroupe and Christopher Cheboiboch won the Leipzig Marathon on Sunday 25 April. While Loroupe clocked 2:29:40 to take the women's title, Cheboiboch, who belongs to the same training group, ran 2:10:16 for the men's division win.

So it was a double celebration for Volker Wagner, their Detmold based German manager.

It was the first time since reunification that the Leipzig Marathon has had such an elite field. As a bidding city for the Olympics 2012 extra funds have been made available, and the newly measured course will be used for the Olympic marathons should Leipzig be successful with its bid.

Tough Course

The course turned out to be quite tough with ups and downs. “It was a difficult course”, Christopher Cheboiboch said. Still the 27 year-old, who was second in the Boston and New York City Marathons in 2002, was faster than any other marathon runner in Leipzig before. The fastest time previously in Leipzig had timed back in 1985, when Jörg Peter (GDR) ran 2:12:32.

“I had a good race here. But the main problem was the wind, which was blowing all the way. So it was not possible for me to run faster”, confirmed Loroupe.

Running with two men as pace, the former fastest ever woman (2:20:43/Berlin 1999) was more than eight minutes ahead of Judy Kiplimo (Kenya/2:38:19) in second.

Nearly 10,000 runners took part in the event with other distances, though little more than 1000 ran the marathon.

Busy schedule with Olympic amibitions

After promoting a Berlin children’s running event for UNICEF at this coming weekend Loroupe will travel back to Kenya. In Nairobi there will be an official presentation of the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation on 14 May. In a busy schedule Tegla then plans to run the 10k women’s race in Casablanca on 23 May.

“I have been in Casablanca before. And I think this is a very good event to support. You have to take into account that it is very difficult for women in this community to start running”, confirmed Loroupe.

The 30 year-old former winner of Marathons in London, New York, Rotterdam and Berlin then intends to do a track season, hoping to qualify for the Kenyan Olympic team at 10,000 metres.

Ruhr attracts 22,500 entries

Besides the Leipzig Marathon there was another big running event in Germany last Sunday. The Ruhr-Marathon had more than 22,500 entries, including shorter distances as well. About 8500 entered the marathon, which was won by Faustin Baha (Tansania) who clocked 2:10:08 on a hilly course. Women’s winner was Lydia Vasilevskaya (Ukraine) in 2:30:07. Former decathlete Frank Busemann, who had finished his career due to injuries a year ago, ran 3:57:21 in his first marathon.

Men:
1. Christopher Cheboiboch   KEN 2:10:16
2. Ernest Kipyego KEN 2:11:00
3. Habte Jifar  ETH 2:14:47
4. Carsten Schütz GER 2:23:18

Women:
1. Tegla Loroupe KEN 2:29:40
2. Judy Kiplimo KEN 2:38:19
3. Tanya Semenova UKR 3:02:48

Ruhr-Marathon:

Men:
1. Faustin Baha TAN 2:10:08
2. Samson Loywapet  KEN 2:12:11
3. Silvio Guerra ECU 2:13:12

Women:
1. Lydia Vasilevskaya UKR 2:30:07
2. Mary Ptikany KEN 2:32:17
3. Beatrice Omwanza KEN 2:33:32