December 20, 2008
On September 29 2008 Austrian distance-star Günther Weidlinger started his preparation for his marathon debut, which he will give in the Austrian capital on April 19 in 2009. The former steeplechaser wants to establish himself in the European marathon elite and aims for the Austrian marathon record of 2:12:22. The Austrian national record which was set also in Vienna is held by Gerhard Hartmann and already lasts for 22 years. At the time being, Weidlinger already has the national records in the 1.500 m (3:34,69 Min), 3.000 m (indoor/7:44,19), 3.000m steeple (8:10,83), 5.000 m (13:13,44), 10.000 m (27:36,46), 10 km road (28:10) and in the halfmarathon (61:42).
Günther Weidlinger started his preparation with a 6-week altitude training camp in Falls Creek/AUS. Down under he also competed in a 15k road race and took 5th-place in a race that was won by Haile Gebrselassie.
November 29, 2008
Several media reported that the Ethiopian distance miracle Kenenisa Bekele will be sidelined for the next months because of a stress fracture on his ankle. The injury occurred in the preparation for the 15Km road running world record attempt in Njimegen, Netherlands in Mid-November. Eventually he took 3rd place in the race and could not stand on his two feet after crossing the finish line.
The 26-year old Olympic 5.000 and 10.000m was told to completely rest for 2 months and then start light training. Consequently he will run no indoor races and even during the Cross-Country season he might not be able to defend his World Champ title.
Even if he had problems with his achilles heel in 2002 that forced him out of competition in that season, it is the first major injury and it remains to be seen how good he will cope with this incidence. Nevertheless, it shows that also the East Africans are no running machines and are working on their very limit.
November 25, 2008
Swiss marathon ace Viktor Röthlin announced already now, that he is not going to compete in the 2009 World Championship marathon in Berlin. About his plans he said: “I will run another city marathon”. While he has not finalised the planning for the autumn, it is sure that he is going to run the London Marathon on 26th April 2009 as his spring marathon. “There are only few marathons in the world, in which a marathon runner must definitely compete. London is for sure one of those marathons” he stated about the marathon in the British capital.
As a preparation for London, Viktor Röthlin will run 3 road races in Switzerland this year before he is heading to a training camp to Kenya.
November 3, 2008
After Ethiopian Gete Wami placed “only” 6th in the 2008 ING New York City Marathon, both Irina Mikitenko and Gete Wami had 65 points in the World Marathon Majors series 2007/2008. The five race directors had to decide who is the winner and did so in an unanimous vote. Irina Mikitenko was made the champion and she now shares 1 million US-$ with the winner of the Men’s World Marathon Majors title, Martin Lel, who was already the winner before the NYC-marathon.
September 20, 2008
On Spiegel TV there is a nice short video about Haile’s preparation for the 36th real,-Berlin Marathon 2008.
German reports visited him in his home in Addis Abeba and on his training sites at 3000m above sea level. He daily trains with the bib, that the Berlin organisers already sent him. The trophy of the 2007 Berlin marathon victory has a special place, but there is still a lot of space for the 2008 tlin rophy…
The 3-minutes video can be seen on Spiegel TV.
September 16, 2008
On September, 14th the World Mountain Running Trophy was held in Crans-Montana (SUI).
Jonathan Wyatt recorded his 6th World title, covering the 12km, 1046m climb course in 55:03. The minor places on the podium were taken by Martin Toroitich (UGA; 55:16) and Ahmet Arslan (TUR; 55:26), who started the race in the leading position but could not match the experience of Wyatt in the steepest part of the course.
The womens race was won with a much bigger margin of 59 seconds by Austrian Andrea Mayr, who just missed to qualify for Beijing in the 3000m steeple by one second. The beaten field included Renate Rungger (ITA, 44:57) and Elisa Desco(ITA, 45:29) and Olympian Kirsten Otterbu (NOR, 45:29.02).
The German team ran rather disappointing. Only Timo Zeiler could compete against the best in the world, coming home 7th in the mens race.
Lead results were as follows:
men (11,970 km/1046 m):
1. Jonathan Wyatt (Nzl) 55:03
2. Martin Toroitich (Uga) 55:16
3. Ahmet Arslan (Tur) 55:26
4. Bernard Dematteis (Ita) 55:48
5. Raymond Fontaine (Fra) 55:52
6. Jairo Vargas Espinosa (Col) 56:30
7. Timo Zeiler (Ger/ TSV Trochtelfingen) 56:43
8. Marco de Gasperi (Ita) 56:50
9. Andrey Safronov (Rus) Rus) 56:53
10. David Schneider (Sui) 56:54
11. Marco Gaiardo (Ita) 57:14
12. Rickey Gates (USA) 57:17
13. Steve Vernon (Eng) 57:27
14. Elexis Gex-Fabry (Sui) 57:40
15. Moses Aliwa (Uga) 57:44
16. Joe Gray (USA) 57:53
17. Sébastien Epiney (Sui) 57:55
18. Tarcis Ancay (Sui) 58:05
19. James Walsh (Eng) 58:10
20. Gabriele Abate (Ita) 58:15
other Germans:
39. Manuel Stöckert (Ger/ TSV Ostheim) 59:29
46. Josef Beha (Ger/ FC Unterkirnach) 1:00:31
80. Marco Sturm (Ger/ LLC Marathon Regensburg) 1:02:46
teams:
1. Italy 43
2. Suisse 59
3. USA 76
8. Germany 172
women (8,330 km/733 m):
1. Andrea Mayr (Aut) 43:57
2. Renate Rungger (Ita) 44:57
3. Elisa Desco (Ita) 45:29
4. Kirsten Otterbu (Nor) 45:29
5. Martina Strähl (Sui) 45:43
6. Anita Haakenstad-Evertsen (Nor) 46:02
7. Paula Tudoran (Rom) 46:35
8. Bernadette Meier (Sui) 47:00
9. Constance Devillers (Fra) 47:07
10. Anna Frost (Nzl) 47:35,
Germans:
53. Veronica Ulrich (Ger/ LG Telis Finanz Regensburg) 52:26,
67. Annette Bendig (Ger/ TG Nürtingen) 54:02,
82. Kerstin Straub (Ger/ SSC Hanau-Rodenbach) 56:06
teams:
1. Norway 24
2. Suisse 25
3. Italy 33
17. Germany 202
junior men (8,33 km/733 m):
1. Sindre Buraas (Nor) 42:12
2. Ricardo Sterni (Ita) 42:25
3. Mevlut Savaser (Tur) 42:43
4. Alper Demir (Tur) 42:51
5. Tim Smith (USA) 43:02
Germans:
23. René Stöckert (Ger/ TSV Ostheim) 44:56
junior women:
1. Laura Park (Eng) 22:34
2. Esra Gullu (Tur) 23:07
3. Alex Dunne (USA) 23:33
4. Victoria Kreuzer (Sui) 23:55
5. Gina Paletta (Wal) 24:04
Germans:
22. Carolin Tuch (Ger/ LAC Erdgas Chemnitz) 25:51
32. Barbara Abler (Ger/ LC Ainring) 26:54
43. Lina Scherzer (Ger/ LAZ Salamander Kornwestheim/ Ludwigsburg) 29:01
teams:
1. England 8
2. Turkey 11
3. Suisse 22
13. Germany 54
full results of the race wmrt2008.org
September 11, 2008
38-year old Constantina Tomescu-Dita, who took the Olympic title in the 2008 Beijing Games announced, that she will run the Bank of America Chicago marathon on October, 12th. It will be her 5th appearance in the Chicago marathon and she might well repeat her victory in 2004 (in 2005 and 2006 she took 2nd place).
However, she will have strong opponents and it remains to be seen if she has recovered from the extraordinary run in Beijing.
the elite field of the Chicago marathon 2008 Womens race includes:
Bezunesh Bekele ETH 2:23:09
Alevtina Biktimirova RUS 2:25:12
Colleen De Reuck USA 2:26:35
Zoila Gomez USA 2:33:53
Lidiya Grigoryeva RUS 2:25:10
Kate O’Neill USA 2:36:15
Adriana Pirtea ROU 2:28:52
Kiyoko Shimahara JPN 2:26:14
Worknesh Tola ETH 2:25:37
Constantina Tomescu-Dita ROU 2:21:30
September 11, 2008
US-Girl Kara Goucher, who took 9th place in the 5.000m (15:49.39) and 10th place at the 10.000m (30:55.16/PB) in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will give her marathon debut in the 2008 ING New York City Marathon. Goucher’s biggest success so far was the bronze medal in the 2007 World Championships in Osaka. Now the 30-year old will turn to the marathon and on November 2nd 2008 she will race her first 42,195km in the city where she was born. Goucher is in good company as already several other marathon stars made their debut in New York, for example Grete Waitz (1978), Goucher’s coach Alberto Salazar (1980), Liz McColgan (1991), Deena Kastor (2001), Marla Runyan (2002), Meb Keflezighi (2002), and Dathan Ritzenhein (2006).
September 6, 2008
On Saturday, 6th of September 2008 the Jungfrau marathon was run in Interlaken (SUI) in ideal conditions. During the 42,195km the participants have to climb 1829 altitude. The men’s race was won by Hermann Achmüller (ITA), who prepared only in the plain and did not do any specific mountain-running training. Mountain-running specialist Martin Cox took 2nd place and Swiss halfmarathon champion Patrick Wieser came in 3rd.
In the womens’ race Hungarian Simona Staicu won as expected despite having stomach problems with Romanian Jeanna Malkova and Swiss Elena Kaledina following on the minor places of the podium.
Lead results were as follows:
marathon men:
1. Achmüller Hermann 1971 ITA 3:03.18,6
2. Cox Martin 1969 ITA 3:05.32,1
3. Wieser Patrick 1979 SUI 3:08.07,9
4. Short Timothy 1981 GB 3:08.37,9
5. Frick Gerd 1974 ITA 3:11.15,1
6. Murzine Grigory 1970 RUS 3:11.32,4
7. Tanui Mike 1976 KEN 3:12.24,3
8. Raittila Anssi 1976 FIN 3:12.42,2
9. Kaledine Serguej 1968 FRA 3:17.16,4
10. Jenzer Urs 1970 SUI 3:18.28,5
marathon women:
1. Staicu Simona 1971 HUN-Hungary 3:39.05,5
2. Malkova Jeanna 1968 ROM 3:41.15,7
3. Kaledina Elena 1966 SUI 3:43.21,1
4. Reiber Carolina 1973 SUI 3:44.31,6
5. Guggisberg-Oberli Petra 1974 SUI 3:50.28,4
6. Amiet Tanja 1976 SUI 3:51.55,0
7. Huser Andrea 1973 SUI 3:52.59,4
8. Lilge-Leutner Carina 1960 AUT 3:53.28,7
9. Jaun Karin 1969 SUI 3:55.01,0
10. Kambara Yuri 1976 JAP 3:56.35,0
full results of the race services.datasport.com
September 6, 2008
Kenyan Samuel Wanjiru, the winner of the 2008 Olympic marathon in Beijing is going after the world record in the Berlin marathon in 2009. The 21-year old wants to break the current world record of Haile Gebrselassie (2:04:26 h, Berlin 2007): “I want the world record at next year’s Berlin marathon and I want to defend my Olympic title” he stated in an interview.
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