Press Release - Munich Marathon - 10/11/24

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

           GENERALI MUNICH MARATHON ON SUNDAY WITH RECORD ENTRY

                Kenyans target a double hat-trick in Munich

Kenya's elite runners target a double hat-trick at Sunday's GENERALI MUNICH 
MARATHON: If successful it will be the third time in a row that runners 
from this country take Germany's fourth biggest marathon race. Cosmas 
Birech and Shamilah Kipsiror are heading the start list with personal bests 
of 2:08:03 and 2:27:33 respectively. 

Organisers registered a record total of over 27,000 entries from 120 
countries for the 38th edition of the GENERALI MUNICH MARATHON, which will 
start and finish next to the iconic Munich Olympic Stadium. Due to building 
works in the arena runners can not finish inside on the track this year. 
While the total figure includes races at shorter distances there will be 
around 6,200 marathon runners on Sunday.

Kenyan debutant among the favourites

A number of athletes had to cancel their start due to either injuries of 
visa problems. The latest withdrawal came from Dominic Nyairo of Kenya, who 
would have been a strong favourite on Sunday. However there is still enough 
talent left to produce a good race. "It is our aim to achieve winning times 
of sub 2:09 and sub 2:26," said Michael Kraus, the elite field coordinator. 
The weather might be challenging, but we remain optimistic to see faster 
winning times than last year."

Cosmas Birech ran his personal record when he won the Rome Marathon in 2018 
with 2:08:03. Rome is not known as a particularly fast course, so Birech 
hopes to achieve a similar time at the GENERALI MUNICH MARATHON. 
Fellow-Kenyans William Kibor and Benard Chumba are also among the 
favourites. Kibor has a PB of 2:08:32 from the Vienna City Marathon back in 
2012 and Chumba ran 2:10:33 in Marrakech last year. All three of them are 
from Kaptagat and train together. "My training went very well and I feel 
that I am in the same kind of shape as when I ran my personal best. If the 
weather is good I hope to run between 2:07 and 2:09 on Sunday," said 
William Kibor at Friday's press conference in Munich. 

A marathon debutant could do very well on Sunday: Kenya's Nehemiah Kipyegon 
showed very promising form recently. The 26 year-old improved his half 
marathon PB to 60:34 in Copenhagen last month. In the highly competitive 
race he finished ninth. Siyum Tola of Ethiopia is another athlete who will 
run his debut in the GENERALI MUNICH MARATHON. He has been involved in 
marathons as a pacemaker and is a training partner of Milkesa Mengesha who 
won the Berlin Marathon two weeks ago. 

In the women's race Shamilah Kipsiror will be the main favourite. The 
Kenyan improved to 2:27:33 for fourth place in Rome this spring. Her half 
marathon PB of 67:53 indicates that there is potentially more to come, 
especially on a flat course like Munich. A trio of Ethiopians will most 
likely be her strongest rivals on Sunday. Gelane Senbete has a personal 
record of 2:29:54 while Gadise Negasa has run 2:30:30. Asmare Assefa could 
be in for a surprise and a big improvement. So far she has not run faster 
than 2:33:10 but the GENERALI MUNICH MARATHON will be her first race 
outside Africa. Assefa is in the same training group with Tola and Mengesha 
in Addis Ababa.

Strong development, but future clouded

"We are thrilled by the record entry which means we have a 20 percent surge 
compared to last year. We are proud of these figures which show that our 
event and the course are really popular," said Gernot Weigl, who runs the 
GENERALI MUNICH MARATHON as Race Director for almost 25 years. Stronger 
elite fields and international media work have helped bring up the numbers 
recently.

Although the city of Munich benefits from the growing number of 
international runners the event attracts, it was Munich's government that 
clouded the future of the GENERALI MUNICH MARATHON. Officers of the city's 
district department (Kreisverwaltungsreferat) decided to pass on the right 
of staging a marathon in the city to a new organiser who has never ever 
staged a road race. There is talk of a two-lap marathon course and it looks 
as if the city of Munich gambles with a successful international event that 
in addition keeps a legacy of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. "I have never 
heard anything like this happening to a major international marathon race," 
said Gernot Weigl, who is now legally challenging the decision of the 
Munich district department. 

More information about the GENERALI MUNICH MARATHON and online entry is 
available at: www.generalimuenchenmarathon.de

                                     ###