July 21, 2009
With two months to go to the Berlin marathon, which will pretty much open the marathon autumn this year, most of the top male marathoners have decided where they want to run (unless they are running the World Championships in Berlin).
In the 36th real,- Berlin marathon (20th of September 2009) Haile Gebrselassie will face strong competition, even though the race organisers could not afford a showdown between Haile and Samuel Wanjiru. However, the 2nd fastest ever-marathon runner Duncan Kibet will join “Mr Long Distance” Haile Gebrselassie in the chase for the new world record on the fast course in Berlin. Kibet won the Amsterdam Marathon in April this year with a time of 2:04:27h. Only Haile himself was faster already over the 42,195km distance. Last year he set the current World Record with a clocking of 2:03:59h in Berlin.
Earlier this year there was some confusion about a possible clash between World Record Gebrselassie and Olympic Champion Wanjiru, but Wanjiru’s statement that he would like to face Geb could not be fulfilled.
Sami Wanjiru is now running the 2009 Bank of America Chicago Marathon (11th October) as several media reported. On the fast course he wants to attack the world record and will face competition from previos Chicago marathon winners Evans Cheruiyot (2008 winner) and Patrick Ivuti (2007 winner).
June 18, 2009
The 2002 European Marathon Champion and Finnish marathon record holder Janne Holmen announced earlier this week that he will quit his competitive running career.
The biggest achievement of Janne Holmen was without doubt the performance in the 2002 European Championships in Munich/GER where he won the Gold medal with a time of 2:12:04h. Four years later in the European Championships in Gothenburg he placed 7th with 2:13:10h. In the IAAF World Championships 2007 Holmen became 9th in 2:19:36h. He also competed in two Olympic Games (2004: 22nd place and 2008: 19th place). Holmen set the current Finnish marathon record of 2:10:46 in the Rotterdam marathon 2008.
The 31-year old doctor of philosophy and father of two children stated that his work and family responsibilities and aims make it almost impossible to continue a professional running training and lifestyle.
June 2, 2009
Britains Athletic Federation (UK Athletics) nominated 3 women for the road events of the IAAF World Championships 2009 in Berlin.
The two fastest ever female marathon runners Paula Radcliffe and Mara Yamauchi are joined by the UK’s fastest ever female walker Johanna Jackson. Officials stated, that the target is on getting individual medals and therefore no complete teams were nominated for the World Cup team competition. Another factor for the small team are the World Half Marathon Championships 2009 that will take place in Birmingham later in this year. UK Athletics wants to nominate a team for male and female events for this competition on home soil.
Radcliffe was selected based on her victory in last years New York City marathon (2:23:56). The 35-year old holds the marathon world record and won the world championships title in Helsinki 2005 and is now eager to regain the title after a recent operation on her toe.
Mara Yamauchi was 6th in last years Olympic Games and finished this years London marathon in 2nd with a PB of 2:23:12h. In the last world championships the 35-year old finished 9th in Osaka/Japan, the country where she currently resides.
The youngest member of the team will be race walker Johanna Jackson (24). Jackson holds the UK record at 20K race walking with 1:31:16h and collected Olympic experience by finishing 22nd in last years Beijing Games.
May 28, 2009
Now it is official: Olympic Marathon Champion Sammy Wanjiru will face Marathon World Record holder Haile Gebrselassie! One week after Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie announced that he will try to brake his own world record (2:03:59h), also Kenyan Samuel Wanjiru confirmed that he will not run the world championships marathon for the Kenyan team, even if Athletics Kenya nominated him.
It will be pretty amazing to see the two best marathoners of the last years to race each other. It’s more than Ethiopia vs. Kenya or youth vs. age! Of course everyone is expecting a new world record now, but it’s still 4 months to go and first of all the two contenders have to toe the line healthy and fit. If this is the case and the pacemakers make their job as good as usual in Berlin we can of course dream of a huge improvement of the current mark, which was set by Geb in Berlin 2008.
May 15, 2009
After announcing the women team early this week, USATF now also named the team for the mens marathon.
2004-Olympians Dan Browne and Nate Jenkins both qualified with their performances in the 2007 Olympic Trials marathon (6th and 7th respectively). Fernando Cabada and Matt Gabrielson were the top finnishers in the 2008 USA Marathon Championships in Minneapolis and Justin Young was selected based on his 2:13:54 performance at the 2008 Rotterdam Marathon last April.
The complete men team:
Dan Browne, Nate Jenkins, Matt Gabrielson, Fernando Cabada, Justin Young
May 14, 2009
The athletics federation of the USA, USATF (United States of America Track and Field), announced the team for the women marathon for the IAAF World Championships 2009 in Berlin. The team is led by the 10.000m bronce medalist of the last world championships in Osaka 2007, Kara Goucher (marathon-PB: 2:25:53).
The complete women team:
Kara Goucher, Desiree Davila, Paige Higgins, Zoila Gomez, Tera Moody
May 8, 2009
Also Spain nominated the marathon runners for this years IAAF World Championships.
The squad consists of a complete team of five runners in the mens category and one female marathoner.
Men:
Jose Rios (35), José Manuel Martínez (37). Rafael Iglesias (29), Pedro Nimo (28), Ignacio Caceres (32)
Women:
Alessandra Aguilar (30)
May 7, 2009
Following Kenya, Japan is the second big marathon nation to announce its team for the IAAF Worl Championships 2009 in Berlin.
At a press conference on May 7th, Japan’s athletics federation Rikuren announced the official lineups for both men and women. The federation, its athletes and the country are determined to make up for the national team’s disappointing showing of last summer’s Olympic games. Both the men’s and women’s teams include a fair number of young athletes, with two of the men and all but one of the women having debuted within the last two years and three runners total having qualified for the World Championships team in their debut marathons.
Men:
Atsushi Sato, Satoshi Irifune, Arata Fujiwara, Masaya Shimizu, Kazuhiro Maeda
Women:
Yoshimi Ozaki, Yoko Shibui, Yuri Kano, Yukiko Akaba, Yoshiko Fujinaga
Reserves:
Men:
Kensuke Takahashi
Women:
Tomo Morimoto
May 1, 2009
As one of the first nations, Kenya has announced its marathon participants for this years World Athletics Championships in Berlin.
The squad is lead by reigning Olympic Champion Samuel Wanjiru on the mens side and the reigning World Champion Catherine Ndereba on the womens side. Kenya Athletics also named a team of 10 reserves.
Men: Samuel Wanjiru, James Kwambai, Duncan Kibet, Daniel Rono, Emmanuel Mutai
Women: Agnes Kiprop, Helena Loshanyang Kiprop, Irene Limika, Catherine Ndereba, Salina Kosgei
Reserves:
Men: Luke Kibet, Abel Kirui, Martin Lel, Robert Cheruiyot, David Kipkorir
Women: Martha Komu, Risper Jemeli, Lydia Cheromei, Edith Masai, Irene Mogaka
April 26, 2009
German marathoner Irina Mikitenko once again delivered a superb performance to win the 2009 edition of the Flora London marathon. with a world leading time of 2:22:11h. With a great show of front running she destroyed a very deep field of the best marathon women in the world.
After going through halfway in 1:10:53h together with Mara Yamauchi (GBR), Zhou Chunxiu (CHN) and pacemaker Aniko Kalovics (HUN), Mikitenko also fought off her closest competitors and was clear ahead after 35km. Until the finish she could extend her lead to a significant gap of 61 seconds.
Irina Mikitenko (GER) winning the 2009 Flora London Marathon. (picture by Moguli)
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