Sammy Kurgat after this third place finish in the 2007 Frankfurt Marathon (© Victah Sailer)
Kenya’s Sammy Kurgat won the Cologne Marathon an IAAF Silver Label Road Race - with a course record of 2:10:03, beating his fellow countryman and defending champion Daniel Too into second.
Young Ethiopian Robe Guta celebrated her biggest win so far, clocking her first sub 2:30 time with 2:29:39.
There was also a fine performance by Sabrina Mockenhaupt in the Half Marathon, which was staged parallel to the longer race. The German achieved a personal best of 1:08:51 minutes.
Kurgat in control
The 33 year-old Kurgat was in a big leading group of about ten runners, who passed the half way mark in a promising 1:04:32. At 30 km (1:31:55) there were still eight runners in the lead pack, but then one after one dropped back. Kurgat also slowed but he had a comfortable lead and finished more than half a minute in front of Too who reached the finish in 2:10:37. Thomas Chemitei was third with 2:11:20. Kenyans dominated the men’s race, taking the first six places and eight of the top ten.
Kurgat, who has a personal best of 2:08:38 from Frankfurt 2007 where he had finished third, improved the four-year-old course record of fellow Kenyan James Rotich by 19 seconds. Rotich had run 2:10:22 in 2004. Kurgat was first supposed to run the Frankfurt Marathon on 26 October, but due to a switch of managers he then went for Cologne.
Guta, Zaituc battle from the gun – women’s race
In the women’s race a duel between Robe Guta and Germany’s Luminita Zaituc developed soon after the start. The two passed the Half Marathon point in 1:13:56 and then went on for a 30 km split time of 1:45:43. In the end the Ethiopian, who is almost 20 years younger than Zaituc, took the race with 2:29:39.
So far Guta had a personal best of 2:33:44 from Dubai in January this year. But she had run an impressive 1:07:46 in 2007 for the Half Marathon. 2:30:00 and second place were fine for Zaituc since she has achieved the national qualifying time for the World Championships in Berlin next year. Zaituc will turn 40 next Thursday and in future could compete as a master as well. There was a big gap to third-placed Alem Gebreezgi (Ethiopia/2:39:09).
First sub-70 Half Marathon for Mockenhaupt
Meanwhile Mockenhaupt clocked her first sub-70 minute time in the Half Marathon. Being the only elite athlete in the Cologne race she was guided by pacemaker Oliver Mintzlaff. With an impressive 1:08:51 the 27-year-old tied the German season’s best of Irina Mikitenko, who had run this time when winning in Paderborn early in the year. The result from Cologne was a great test for Mockenhaupt’s second Marathon, which she will run in Frankfurt in three weeks. On the fast course she should now be able to improve to around 2:26. Last year she had won her debut in Cologne with 2:29:33 but faded in the final stages.
Upwards of 10,000 Marathon runners had entered Germany’s fourth biggest event at this distance behind Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt. For the first time the Half Marathon had more entries than the full distance race (11,000). Another 5,000 athletes competed in other events on Sunday in wet and cool conditions.
Jörg Wenig for the IAAF
