German Olympians Melanie Kraus and Susanne Hahn finish the Olympic marathon in 38th and 52nd place

August 17, 2008

In the Olympic women’s marathon in Beijing the two remaining (after the withdrawal of Irina Mikitenko) Germans both successfully finished the race, which was won by Romanian Constantina Tomescu in 2:26:44 ahead of the favourites Catherine Ndereba (KEN; 2:27:06h) and Zhou Chunxiu (CHN; 2:27:07h).

Melanie Kraus (left) and Susanne Hahn in August 2008 (picture provided from Frank Hahn)

Frankfurt marathon winner Melanie Kraus ran 2:35:17 to take 38rd place: “The conditions were not as difficult as in last year’s world championships in Osaka”. “I ran very defensive until kilometer 25 as it was the plan. If 37 others were better I have to accept that.” Kraus also stated that the atmosphere on the course was like in Osaka and the crowd cheered a lot.
The higher rated, currently reigning German marathon champion, Susanne Hahn led the field through the first kilometer alongside Paula Radcliffe but faded in the later stages of the race and had to be medicated after the finish because of severe stomach problems.
After 30 minutes both Germans were in the back of the field and followed the race plan of their coaches. After 15km both ran approx. 1:40min behind the leaders and this margin extended to approx. 4:45min after 25km. After 35km Melanie Kraus had a deficit of 7:17min with Susanne Hahn further 1:28min behind. The Germans finished the marathon 8:27min (Kraus) and 11:47 (Hahn) after lucky Gold medalist.

After all the performances are reasonable and pretty much as expected – Congratulations to both.