Boaz Kimaiyo en route in Frankfurt (© Victah Sailer)
In its 22nd edition the Eurocity Frankfurt Marathon finally got its first sub 2:10 time of the race's history. It was a Kenyan who achieved it. Boaz Kimaiyo won one of Germany's most traditional road races, clocking 2:09:28. Just five seconds later Leonid Shvetsov crossed the finish line, which was in an indoor arena for the first time.
6,500 people watched the finish, while many more had lined the streets outside. They saw a home win in the women's event, which was dominated by Luminita Zaituc. The German runner, who originally comes from Romania, ran 2:29:41 and finished just inside the national Olympic qualifying time. About 9,300 runners had entered the Frankfurt Marathon.
In relatively good weather conditions - no rain, temperatures between 8 and 10 ° Celsius but partly windy - a group of nine runners reached the half marathon mark after 64:39 minutes. It was after the 25 k mark (1:16:19) when the pace was picked up by the Kenyans who were running 15:16 and 15:11 for the next two 5 k sections. After this only two of them were left in the lead: Benjamin Itok and Boaz Kimaiyo. Paul Kiptanui had lost contact before.
While Itok could not stand the pace much longer, Kimaiyo looked to be the clear winner - but in windy conditions he was also fading. Surprisingly Leonid Shvetsov, who had lost contact to the leaders after the 25 k mark, came close again in the final stages of the race. But in the end the 27 year old Kimayo, who belongs to the group of manager and coach Dr. Gabriele Rosa and is the younger brother of Erick Kimaiyo, just held on.
This was the first marathon victory for Kimaiyo in his third attempt. But it was not a personal best. A year ago he had clocked 2:08:45 in Amsterdam.
In contrast to the men's race the women's event was all about one woman only: Luminita Zaituc was setting a fast pace right from the start, reaching 10 k in 34:11 minutes. She was well ahead of her rivals by then and reached half way in 1:13:06.
But already then it was obvious that Zaituc could not hold on to her fast pace. She was suffering a pain in her thigh. But taking into account that the runner from Braunschweig, who was second in last year's European Championships, came back from a back injury, she ran a good race. "I am happy to have won and to have achieved the Olympic qualifying standard", Zaituc said.
Results, Men:
1. Boaz Kimaiyo KEN 2:09:28
2. Leonid Shvetsov RUS 2:09:33
3. Paul Kiptanui KEN 2:11:12
4. Benjamin Itok KEN 2:11:54
5. Dimitrij Baranowski UKR 2:12:47
6. Julius Rutto KEN 2:13:03
Women:
1. Luminita Zaituc GER 2:29:41
2. Larissa Malikova RUS 2:32:59
3. Claudia Oberlin SUI 2:35:17
