Ulrike Maisch in Dresden 2007 (© Victah Sailor)
Hamburg, GermanySpain’s Marathon record holder Julio Rey, Kenya’s triple Frankfurt Marathon champion Wilfred Kigen and Germany’s European Champion Ulrike Maisch will be in the spotlight at Sunday’s Conergy Hamburg Marathon, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race.
In Hamburg, Rey could almost be considered a local hero. He has won the race four times: in 2001, 2003, 2005 and in 2006. When the Spaniard took the honours two years ago he clocked his national record of 2:06:52. This remains the course record as well. Last year Rey didn’t come back to Hamburg, choosing to run in Paris instead, where he could only achieve 2:11:36. Then he dropped out of the World Championships’ race in the brutally hot and humid conditions of Osaka. Coming back to northern Germany it will be interesting to see in what sort of form the 36-year-old will be on Sunday.
His toughest rivals probably come from Kenya. Kigen should be the main contender. The 33- year-old Kigen was in top shape last year. But he has been unlucky in Hamburg. Losing a sprint final he missed winning the race by just one second. Rodgers Rop was the winner with 2:07:32 while Kigen’s 2:07:33 is still his personal best today. In October he won the Frankfurt Marathon for a third time in a row clocking another sub 2:08 time (2:07:58).
Martin Beckmann and Falk Cierpinski will have different time goals on Sunday: the national qualifying time for the Olympics stands at 2:13:00. This will be a difficult task for both of them, especially taking into account possible warm temperatures towards the end of the race. So far Beckmann has clocked 2:15:04 from Berlin 2004. Cierpinski, who is the son of the double Olympic gold medallist from 1976 and 1980 Waldemar Cierpinski, has a personal best of just 2:19:06. But his father has guided the former triathlete with a very careful approach to the Marathon so it may be possible for him to improve by a bigger margin.
Focus on Maisch's chase for Beijing ticket
Maisch is pretty much in the centre of the women’s race. After her sensational gold medal at the European Championships in Gothenburg two years ago foot problems prevented her from finishing another Marathon for more than a year. It was in Frankfurt where she came back last year. Running a bit cautiously Maisch finished sixth with 2:32:41. So far the 31-year-old has never run sub 2:30. In Gothenburg she just missed out on such a time, finishing in 2:30:01. But she knows that she will have to do so in Hamburg to be in with a chance for a ticket to Beijing.
“It will not be enough for me to just break the qualifying standard of 2:31, because four German women have already broken that one,” said Maisch, who comes from Rostock, roughly a 90 minute drive from Hamburg. “I will definitely have to run 2:29 to qualify for the Olympics. But I believe that I can achieve 2:28.”
23,230 runners have entered Germany’s second biggest Marathon behind Berlin, and organisers are expecting more than 20,000 to take part.
Jörg Wenig for the IAAF
