Press Release - Marathon Hamburg - 4/24/17

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

      Passion for the Marathon still fires 2012 Olympic gold medallist 
                             Stephen Kiprotich

As he reflected a few hours after finishing runner-up to Ethiopia's Tsegaye 
Mekonnen on his debut in the Haspa Marathon Hamburg on Sunday, Stephen 
Kiprotich was clearly a man who has quite a few years of top flight racing 
ahead of him. He had run 2:07:31 in difficult conditions, hail stones and 
rain sweeping in from the North Sea at times, losing by only five seconds 
on the run-in by a resurgent Ethiopian who had regained his winning form 
after two years of injury.

The Ugandan has climbed the twin marathon peaks already, winning the 
Olympic title in London in 2012 and the World Championship in Moscow a year 
later. His pre-race objective in Hamburg was to break his own national 
record of 2:06:33 and secure selection for another tilt at the world title 
in London this August. The government civil servant admitted that he 
wondered whether his Hamburg performance would be enough: "I don't know, 
there are so many athletes and I don't know if they will select me. They 
still have more athletes who are tougher than me."

That was a surprising comment from a man who has twice proven what a 
winning competitor he can be in the marathon when it is racing pure and 
simple, no pacemakers provided and held during the peak of summer. 
Kiprotich provided a modest insight into the reason for his Olympic and 
World Championship victories: "I think it depends on the day, your 
preparations, all races are not the same, the distance is the same but the 
courses are different. For me, it was just my good day."

Stephen Kiprotich turned 28 on the Wednesday before the Haspa Marathon 
Hamburg. He knows how to look after himself, praising the benefits of a 
sauna to ease race-weary limbs and had finished a deserved nap on Sunday 
afternoon before the interview. But sooner or later an elite athlete has to 
face the fact that they are no longer a contender. The Ugandan record 
holder has been giving this some thought: "Maybe when I stop in future - I 
am a government officer - I would do more of that and, on top of that, I 
would help upcoming athletes, give them tips on how to run a marathon and 
how to begin."

He was the first non-Kenyan to win a men's global marathon title for seven 
years when he won the Olympic gold in London in 2012. Uganda hasn't come 
even close to emulating the conveyor belt of long distance talent that 
Kenya has been producing for the past four decades and it sounds as if 
Stephen Kiprotich would be fast-tracked for promotion in this management 
role, once his competitive days are over: "Where I work, our department 
supports sports and I am likely to be heading that department in future."

In the meantime, it would be a big surprise if the Ugandan selectors failed 
to find a place in the World Championship team for London this summer for 
an athlete who relishes the big occasion.

More information about the Haspa Marathon Hamburg is available at: 
www.haspa-marathon-hamburg.de

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