German marathoners in a new era as several new PBs are set in Düsseldorf marathon?

May 4, 2009

Sundays Düsseldorf marathon met most of the expectations, especially in the mens field, as 2 men went sub-2:14 and 5 went sub-2:20.

mens race

André Pollmächer delivered a personal best mark of 2:13:09 to finish in 3rd place overall. In his second marathon after Frankfurt 2008 he improved by 1:09min. The time of 2:13:09 is also the fastest by a German marathoner since 2000! Pollmächer stated: “I felt fine today and surely there is more to come next time. I want to continue to improve…”.
Together with Martin Beckamnn and Falk Cierpinski, Pollmächer passed halfmarathon in 66:07min and disengaged from his competitors shortly after. Martin Beckmann was also rewarded for his courage by clocking a personal best of 2:13:42h for 6th place. Beckmann commented: “Actually I did not want to start that fast, but running alone would have been stupid as well. Until kilometer 20 I felt fantastic and thought that the time would be even faster.”
Falk Cierpinski was rather disappointed with his 8th place in 2:17:12h but a hip issue hampered the training for the last five weeks, after coming back from an altitude stay in Kenya: “I could not do faster or longer runs for five weeks”. The fastest German marathoner for the last 2 years now wants to concentrate on the home world championships.
Behind the trio of Cierpinski, Beckmann and Pollmächer a fight was expected for the last ticket for the world championships between Uli Stedl and Tobias Sauter. After passing halfway in 68:31min together the 25 year old Sauter had a better second half and finished in a PB of 2:17:27h, only 15 seconds behind his training partner Cierpinski. With this performance it is much likely that Sauter will be the 5th man (behind Pollmächer, Cierpinski, Beckmann and Stefan Koch) in the team for the World Champs. The more experienced, 37year old Steidl had to pay some tribute to a sub-optimal preparation because of a hip-flexor injury but still ran a 2:19:44. However, he most probably will not be able to represent Germany in the 2009 World Championships a second time after 2007 in Osaka.

womens race

The story in the womens race was Susanne Hahn, who clocked a PB of 2:29:26h to win the overall female classement. With this time she stayed clearly under the qualification time of 2:32:00h and will therefore most probably represent Germany in Berlin for the World Championships. The 31 year old concluded the race, saying: “I had hoped for a better result, but at the end I was happy to have improved my personal best by seven seconds. All went well for 30km, but then my legs became very heavy”.
Unfortunately the closest competitors of Hahn dropped out of the race due to injury reasons. Defending Düsseldorf champion Melanie Kraus had to give up after 8K already after she pulled a thigh muscle in her stretching routine just before the start. Claudia Dreher dropped out at km 13, but she already started the race with a foot injury.
So the 2nd place went to marathon debutant Melanie Schulz. After running the first half in 1:17:18h, Schulz hit the wall after 35K and missed her target of 2:35h quite clearly.

Results were posted already earlier..