Press Release - Hannover Marathon - 4/6/18

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                      HAJ Hannover Marathon on Sunday

               Gilbert Kirwa chases course record in Hannover, 
                      Fate Tola wants to defend title

Kenya's Gilbert Kirwa and Germany's Fate Tola are very much in the focus 
before Sunday's HAJ Hannover Marathon. Kirwa hopes to finally put injury 
problems behind him and produce a convincing performance on the flat course 
by attacking the course record. Former Ethiopian Tola intends to defend her 
title. Adding events at shorter distances organisers registered a record 
number of around 25,000 athletes for the 28th edition of the HAJ Hannover 
Marathon, which is an IAAF Silver Label Road Race.

Four runners with personal bests of sub 2:08 are on the start list. With a 
time of 2:06:14 Gilbert Kirwa is the fastest in the field, followed by 
Poland's Henryk Szost (2:07:39) and the two Kenyans Cheshari Jacob 
(2:07:46) and Duncan Koech (2:07:53). This quartet intends to run the first 
half in 64:00 minutes, which would be a pace that could lead to a new 
course record. The current record holder is South Africa's Lusapho April, 
who clocked 2:08:32 five years ago. 

"I was able to train very well in the past three months. So I am looking 
forward to the race on Sunday and hope to go for the course record," said 
Gilbert Kirwa, who has had some success in the German speaking regions in 
the past. Back in 2009 he first took the Vienna City Marathon and then went 
on to win the Frankfurt Marathon, where he produced his personal best of 
2:06:14. It was in Frankfurt, where one of his rivals ran very well last 
October: Henryk Szost was seventh in 2:10:09 despite some strong head 
winds.

It looks likely that two women will fight for victory in Hannover: Kenya's 
Agnes Kiprop and Germany's Fate Tola. With a personal best of 2:23:54 
Kiprop is the fastest woman on the start list. "On Sunday I plan to run the 
first half in 1:13 and then go for the course record," said the Kenyan. 
Ukraine's Olena Burkovska is the current course record holder with a time 
of 2:27:07 from 2013. 

For Fate Tola it is mainly about victory. There is an additional motivation 
for her since she switched clubs at the beginning of the year and now 
competes for Hannover Athletics. As a local she will surely receive 
additional support on Sunday. "My training went very well in the past 
weeks," said Fate Tola, who did high altitude training in Addis Abeba in 
the past two months. "I have a slight cold but I am still confident. If all 
goes well and it does not get too warm in the final part of the race then I 
will try to go for the course record", said Fate Tola, who has a personal 
best of 2:25:14. "It is an advantage that there were some minor changes 
regarding the course since there are less bends now. This helps and it is 
possible to run faster," explained Tola, who ran 2:27:48 here a year ago.

Selected elite athletes with personal bests

Men:
Gilbert Kirwa KEN 2:06:14
Henryk Szost POL 2:07:39
Cheshari Jacob KEN 2:07:46
Duncan Koech KEN 2:07:53
Seboka Negussa Erre ETH 2:09:14
Michael Kunyuga KEN 2:10:43
Dejene Kelkilew Aga ETH 2:11:21
Justus Kiprotich KEN 2:11:38

Women: 
Agnes Kiprop KEN 2:23:54
Fate Tola GER 2:25:14
Sechale Adugna ETH 2:26:27
Sifan Demise ETH 2:31:21
Olga Skrypak UKR 2:31:30

More information about the HAJ Marathon Hannover is available at: 
www.marathon-hannover.de 

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