Luminita Zaituc (right) in the 2002 European Champs - Renders of Belgium follows (© Getty Images)
Luminita Zaituc clocked the fastest marathon time by a German female runner since 2002 when winning the Düsseldorf Marathon on Sunday (8 May). Despite rain, wind and cold temperatures she clocked 2:26:44.
She was happy with the result, but not happy with the weather conditions since she prefers warm weather. “It was so cold I couldn’t feel my legs”, Luminita Zaituc said. Three years ago Sonja Oberem had clocked 2:26:21 in Hamburg.
Zaituc had passed the half way mark in 1:12:47 along with her pacemakers Matthias Strotmann (Germany) and Francis Kiprob (Kenya). In the end she not only smashed the course record as more importantly the 2002 European Championships silver medallist easily beat the German Athletics Federation’s qualifying time for Helsinki (2:32:00). She is the second German marathon runner to qualify for the World Championships. Claudia Dreher had run 2:29:49 in this year’s Hamburg Marathon.
Japanese Junko Akagi finished second in Düsseldorf, but was more than twelve minutes behind, clocking 2:39:20. In the men’s race Brazilian Alan Bomfim Silva won in 2:17:19 hours.
German champions
At the German Marathon Championships in Regensburg, which were held on the same day, Dirk Nürnberger won his second marathon title in a slow 2:22:48. Monica Schuri was the women’s winner in 2:39:17.
Simon Lopuyet won the third big German marathon race on Sunday. He ran 2:15:33 in the Hannover Marathon and finished ahead of two other Kenyans. In windy conditions Josephat Rob was second (2:16:09) while Daniel Keter took third place (2:17:08). Women’s winner Evelyne Kimuria (Kenya) clocked 2:48:18.
Jörg Wenig for the IAAF
