Wilfred Kigen winning the 2006 Frankfurt Marathon (© Victor Sailer)
It’s rare that home runners get a look-in when a big-city Marathon rolls round, but while Wilfred Kigen of Kenya goes for a hat trick of victories in the Dresdner Kleinwort Frankfurt Marathon on Sunday morning (28), German interest will focus on European champion Ulrike Maisch, who runs her first Marathon since winning the title in Gothenburg last year.
Two weeks after the biggest win of her careeer, Maisch, now 30 developed a stress fracture in her left foot, which has blighted her training for the best part of 12 months.
“It’s so frustrating,” said Maisch on Friday, “there were times when I was in tears. I was swimming, cycling, doing other exercises, to try and keep fit, but nothing seemed to work. I wanted to run in Hamburg (April), but I just wasn’t ready. It’s still not 100%, the furthest I can run is 32k, but it’s not getting worse”.
Having missed an opportunity to run the World Championships in Osaka this summer – “at least I will have the chance in 2009, with the championships in Berlin,” she says – the imperative now is to make the team for the Olympic Games in Beijing next summer.
Sunday’s race is one of the last opportunities to make an impact, but with Irina Mikitenko having made the fastest debut in German history with her 2:24:51, for second in Berlin a month ago, there are probably only two places left. Accordingly, the women’s race is virtually a national championships, since it also features Luminita Zaituc and Melanie Kraus.
Zaituc won Frankfurt in a personal best 2:26:01 in 2001 and took European silver in Munich the following year. Earlier this year, she won Dusseldorf for the third time in succession, while Kraus, whose best is 2:27:58, came 20th in the recent World Championships.
Zakharova returns
The Germans face a stiff test though, since former Boston and Chicago winner, Russian Svetlana Zakharova (2:21:31) is making her comeback after giving birth to daughter Ksenga exactly a year ago. Zakharova, 37 is also making an Olympic bid, for the Russian team.
“I’m a bit nervous, because it’s my first race since being pregnant. But everything has gone well. I started training again about two and half months after the birth, and I lost weight easily. I’m well prepared, and would like to think I could run 2:25 here”.
If she does that, she’ll almost certainly be first woman into the city’s old Exhibition Hall, which provides one of the most unusual and spectacular finishes on the world Marathon circuit. The hall, popularly known as the Gud Stub (good ole place) seats several thousand, and the Marathoners are greeted by fireworks and an oompah band.
Kigen leads experienced compatriots
Two years ago, Kigen prevented a hat trick by colleague, Boaz Kimaiyo. Now Kigen, who set the course record of 2:08:29 in 2005, and improved his personal best to 2:07:33 at the Hamburg Marathon earlier this year, is himself the target for a raft of compatriots, led by Fred Kiprop, whose 2:06:47 is however eight years old.
Two of Kigen’s training partners might provide the sternest opposition to him winning three in a row. One of them, Wilson Boit Kipketer is one of the biggest names in the sport, a former World champion and World record holder for the steeplechase.
Having grown up together in Eldoret, the heartland of Kenyan distance running, it was Boit Kipketer’s example which persuaded Kigen to start training at the relatively late age of 24.
Boit Kipketer ran 2:15:23 in his debut in Dusseldorf in May, and says he will be happy with anything better than that. But, after two years of injury, another colleague, Vincent Kipsos feels he’s back to the sort of form which took him to a 2:06:52 clocking in Berlin five years ago. But Kigen, now 32 has brought a talisman, his daughter Patience, aged eight, having her first trip outside Kenya.
“I have three boys as well,” explained Kigen, whose wife teaches German in Kenya. “But I thought she would be easier to bring.” So that’s added pressure on dad to win. But the bottom line is, if he doesn’t, it’s a virtual certainty that one of his Kenyan colleagues will.
Pat Butcher for the IAAF
