European Athletics Outdoor Championships – News – Historic Marathon Wins For Lisowska, Ringer at European Athletics Championships

HISTORIC MARATHON WINS FOR LISOWSKA, RINGER AT EUROPEAN ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2022 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved – Used with permission.

MÜNICH (15-Aug) — Poland’s Aleksandra Lisowska and Germany’s Richard Ringer won historic gold medals today in the marathon on the opening day of the 2022 European Athletics Championships here.  Lisowska, 31, won the first-ever European marathon title for Poland in a nail-biting race where four women were still in contention for the medals in the final 50 meters. Ringer, 33, became the first German man to take the European marathon crown, sprinting past the tiring Maru Teferi of Israel in only the final 20 meters.  In hot and sunny conditions, they were timed in 2:28:36 and 2:10:21, respectively, and both drew loud cheers from the thousands of spectators who lined the finish.

Lisowska, who co-holds the Polish marathon record of 2:26:08, was not a favorite to win a medal here today.  Before today she had only broken 2:30 for the marathon once, and at last summer’s Tokyo Olympics she only finished 35th in 2:35:33.  She was so below the radar that her official athlete profile on the European Athletics website didn’t even have a photo.

But today she ran a patient race, allowing others to do the leading until the time was right for her final move.  She took advantage of the reasonable first half pace of 1:14:33 to tuck in the pack and assess her better-known rivals like Portugal’s Sara Moreira, Germany’s Miriam Dattke, Netherlands’ Nienke Brinkman, Switzerland’s Fabienne Schlumpf, Italy’s Giovanna Epis, and Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack.  Indeed, it was not until the 30-K point, when the lead pack was down to 10, that Lisowska thought about asserting herself.

“From the start, I felt I was in total control of the race,” she said.  “In fact, the first 30 kilometers were too slow for me so I tried to attack the pace a bit so I could go ahead.  After the 30th kilometer, I was able to run the pace I wanted and still kept the energy to attack if needed.”

All the significant action took place after the 35-K mark.  Brinkman, Dattke, Lisowska, Croatia’s Matea Parlov Kostro (another surprising athlete today), and Epis were the only athletes who remained in contention.  With the clock showing 2:20:50, Epis had fallen back (she would finish fifth) and Lisowska and Dattke had pulled ahead of Brinkman and Parlov Kostro.  Moments later, Lisowska put in her one big move hitting 40-K in…