HASPA MARATHON HAMBURG ON SUNDAY: Course records and Olympic qualification the targets in Hamburg

HASPA MARATHON HAMBURG ON SUNDAY

Course records and Olympic qualification the targets in Hamburg

World-class fields will go for course records and target Olympic qualification in Sunday’s Haspa Marathon in Hamburg. Kenya’s defending champion and course record holder Bernard Koech, who tied his best with 2:04:09 a year ago, is back. At the same time, Gotytom Gebreslase, the World Champion from 2022, is the favorite in the women’s race. The Ethiopian, who has a PB of 2:18:18, wants to secure the third spot for the Paris Olympic race in Hamburg. Fellow Ethiopian Yalemzerf Yehualaw holds Hamburg’s course record of 2:17:23. Late entry Nienke Brinkman will also try to qualify for Paris. The Dutch runner is the bronze medallist from the European Championships in Munich in 2022.

Organizers of Germany’s biggest and fastest spring marathon have registered a record total of 38,210 runners. Among them are 15,000 athletes who will compete in the classic event. “If all goes well on Sunday and the pacemakers run a bit more even and slightly faster, we could see results similar to last year. I am curious to see if Gotytom Gebreslase manages to qualify for Paris and if she can break the course record. But even a sub 2:20 time is special since we only have one so far,“ said chief organizer Frank Thaleiser, who introduced an additional bonus of 20,000 Euros for the course records. All runners – men and women – who finish inside the course records share this amount. If there were one man and three women who clock faster times than the previous records, they would each receive 5,000 Euros. “This way, we want to encourage the runners in a leading group to go for a fast time after the last pacemaker has dropped out,“ explained Frank Thaleiser.

“Training was going well, and compared to last year in Hamburg, I have reached the same level. So if the weather conditions are fine then a fast time is possible,“ said Bernard Koech. It is highly unlikely that he could still be selected for the Olympic marathon, but he said: “I will give everything, and if they should select me, then I will be ready.“ Bernard Koech is one of seven runners in the race who feature personal bests of sub 2:05:00. While Ethiopia’s Getaneh Molla is the fastest on the start list at 2:03:34, he has not reached such times in recent years.

Brimin Misoi and Philemon Kiplimo are tipped to be among the strongest challengers for defending champion Koech. Both have done very well…