FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Phone: 030-301 288 10
Fax: 030-301 288 20
Olympic Champion Mizuki Noguchi among record number of 40,000 runners
Driss El Himer and Bong-ju Lee want to stop Kenyan win streak
Elite field released
The real,- BERLIN MARATHON is Germany’s premier road running event. It has
been Germany’s biggest and best quality marathon for two decades. And
regarding the founding of the Big Five the overall quality of the real,-
BERLIN MARATHON should get even better in the near future. The Big Five
include the BAA Boston Marathon, the Flora London Marathon, the LaSalle
Banks Chicago Marathon, the ING New York City Marathon and the real,-
BERLIN MARATHON.
When the athletes set off for the 32nd real,- BERLIN MARATHON on 25th
September the race will boost a record field of 40,000 runners plus
walkers, wheelchair athletes and handbikers. Additionally on the same day
about 8,000 pupils take part in the real,- MINI-MARATHON. And on the day
before another 8,000 inline skaters will participate in this separated
real,- BERLIN MARATHON. Their race will be held in the afternoon in front
of an expected crowd of about 250,000. More than a million spectators are
expected to watch the race on Sunday. The Brandenburg Gate will once again
be the spectacular background of the finish.
This year the focus will be pretty much on one athlete: Mizuki Noguchi. The
Olympic Marathon Champion from Athens in 2004 will run her first marathon
since her biggest triumph so far little more than a year ago. It was four
years ago, when the real,- BERLIN MARATHON had an Olympic Champion in its
elite field for the first time. In 2001 the gold medal winner from Sydney
2000, Naoko Takahashi, became the first woman to break 2:20 hours in
Berlin, clocking 2:19:46.
During the last five years Berlin’s women’s winner has always come from
Japan. But Mizuki Noguchi not only intends to continue this unique win
streak. The 27 year-old wants to clearly improve her personal best of
2:21:18 from Osaka in 2003. She might well become the third women to break
the 2:20 barrier in Berlin. Last year Yoko Shibui had improved Naoko
Takahashi’s course record by five seconds to 2:19:41. While she had missed
the Asian record of Yingjie Sun (China/2:19:39) by just two seconds this
could well be in Mizuki Noguchi’s reach. Training in St. Moritz is said to
have gone very well – even better than before the Olympic Games.
While Sonia O’Sullivan had to withdraw due to lack of form since her
training did not go as well as she had hoped to Luminita Zaituc has to be
watched. The number one German marathoner has a personal best of 2:26:01 so
far. But the silver medallist from the Europeans in 2002 just needs to get
the right race to clearly improve. The fast Berlin course should suit her.
There will be huge Japanese media interest in the real,- BERLIN MARATHON
once again. And while the race is shown live on German TV (ARD/RBB) it will
also be broadcasted live in Japan by Fuji TV.
The men’s race will not feature an Olympic Champion but at least an Olympic
medallist. South Korea’s Bong-Ju Lee had been second at the Atlanta
Olympics in 1996. He then went on to win the BAA Boston Marathon in 2001,
stopping a Kenyan win streak of ten first places in a row, and improved to
2:07:20 when he was second at the Tokyo Marathon in 2000.
As in Boston in 2001 Bong-Ju Lee will meet tough opposition from Kenya in
Berlin. Kenyan runners have dominated the real,- BERLIN MARATHON in recent
years. Since 1999 the winner has always been a Kenyan. And two of them will
be running again: Joseph Ngolepus was the winner in 2001 while Raymond
Kipkoech triumphed a year later. Additionally there will be another former
winner of the BAA Boston Marathon in Berlin’s elite field: Kenyan Robert
Cheruiyot had won that race in 2003. It was in the same year, when Michael
Rotich had won the Paris Marathon with a course record of 2:06:33. The
Kenyan will now try to win the real,- BERLIN MARATHON on 25th September.
But he will not be the runner with the fastest marathon time in the field.
Titus Munji had been third in the legendary world record race in the real,-
BERLIN MARATHON 2003. Behind fellow Kenyans Paul Tergat (2:04:55) and Sammy
Korir (2:04:56) he had clocked 2:06:15 for third place. Now Titus Munji
comes back to Berlin, aiming to b e number one. But former Moroccan Driss
El Himer (France) could as well produce an upset for the Kenyans.
ELITE RUNNERS IN THE 32nd real,- BERLIN MARATHON
MEN
2 Titus Munji Personal best: 2:06:15 (3rd Berlin ’03) KEN
4 Michael Rotich Personal best: 2:06:33 (1st Paris ’03) KEN
5 Raymond Kipkoech Personal best: 2:06:47 (1st Berlin ’02) KEN
6 Driss El Himer Personal best: 2:06:48 (Paris ’03) KEN
7 Bong-Ju Lee Personal best: 2:07:20 (Tokyo ’00) KOR
8 Joseph Ngolepus Personal best: 2:07:57 (London ’03) KEN
9 Jackson Koech Personal best: 2:08:02 (Rotterdam ’05) KEN
10 Philip Manyim Personal best: 2:08:07 (Rom ’05) KEN
11 Peter Chebet Personal best: 2:08:43 (Chicago ’03) KEN
12 Satoshi Osaki Personal best: 2:08:46 (Tokyo ’04) JPN
14 Paul Kiptanui Personal best: 2:09:09 (Turin ’99) KEN
16 Ernest Kipyego Personal best: 2:09:55 (Eindhoven ’03) KEN
17 Robert K. Cheruiyot Personal best: 2:10:11 (1st Boston ’03) KEN
18 Toshiya Katayama Personal best: 2:10:12 (Lake Biwa ’05) JPN
19 Stanley Leleito Personal best: 2:10:16 (Zürich ’05) KEN
25 Andrew Letherby Personal best: 2:12:45 (Fukuoka ’03) AUS
WOMEN
F2 Mizuki Noguchi Personal best: 2:21:18 (Osaka ’03) JPN
Olympic Champion 2004
F5 Luminita Zaituc Personal best: 2:26:01 (Frankfurt ’01) GER
F6 Leila Aman Personal best: 2:27:54 (Berlin ’04) ETH
F7 Melanie Kraus Personal best: 2:27:58 (Berlin ’00) GER
F9 Monika Drybulska Personal best: 2:29:58 (Berlin ’03) POL
F10 Annemette Jensen Personal best: 2:30:07 (2004)
###
|
