Mizuki Noguchi, Athen 2004.
The marathon fall could be once more a stormy one. Three of the five Big Five Marathons are on schedule: Traditionally the real,- Berlin Marathon makes the start on September 25th. Two weeks later the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon starts on October 9th, and on November 6th the ING New York City Marathon will take place. Over 120,000 runners will be participating at these three classic marathons. And among them is the world elite of marathon running.
While the BAA Boston Marathon and the Flora London Marathon traditionally take place in April, the other three members of the Big Five are fall events.
Berlin’s race will boost a record field of about 40,000 runners, walkers, wheelchair athletes and handbikers, and meanwhile the real,- Berlin Marathon is the fourth biggest marathon in the world behind New York, London and Chicago.
This year the focus will be pretty much on one athlete: Mizuki Noguchi. The Olympic Marathon Champion from Athens in 2004 will run her first marathon since her biggest triumph so far little more than a year ago. It was four years ago, when the real,- Berlin Marathon had an Olympic Champion in its elite field for the first time. In 2001 the gold medal winner from Sydney 2000, Naoko Takahashi, became the first woman to break 2:20 hours in Berlin, clocking 2:19:46. During the last five years Berlin’s women’s winner has always come from Japan. But Mizuki Noguchi not only intends to continue this unique win streak. The 27 year-old wants to clearly improve her personal best of 2:21:18 from Osaka in 2003. She might well become the third women to break the 2:20 barrier in Berlin. Last year Yoko Shibui had improved Naoko Takahashi’s course record by five seconds to 2:19:41. While she had missed the Asian record of Yingjie Sun (China/2:19:39) by just two seconds this could well be in Mizuki Noguchi’s reach.
The best German marathon runner will also participate at the real,- Berlin Marathon: Luminita Zaituc. Her goal is a new personal best as well. And she should be able to beat her current time of 2:26:01 hours. Behind Olympic Champion Mizuki Noguchi everything is possible on Sunday. “I am looking forward to the real,- Berlin Marathon. To run in Berlin is a great chance for me,” said Luminita Zaituc.
Kenyan runners have dominated the real,- Berlin Marathon in recent years. Since 1999 the winner has always been a Kenyan. And two of them will be running again: Joseph Ngolepus was the winner in 2001 while Raymond Kipkoech triumphed a year later. The fastest runner in the field according to the personal bests is Michael Rotich (Kenya), who had won the Paris Marathon 2003 with a course record of 2:06:33 with an age of just 22 years. But there are three more Kenyans in the race, who probably have huge potential. Jackson Koech ran 2:08:02 in his first ever marathon this year in Rotterdam. Philip Manyim was second as well in Rom. He clocked 2:08:07. And Peter Chebet has a PB of 2:08:43 with which he was fourth in Chicago two years ago.
At the high class LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon both of last year’s winners are among the 40,000 runners. Evans Rutto ran two times in Chicago and also won both times. The Kenyan, who is part of the KIMbia Team of Dieter Hogen, could do a hat-trick. “I hope to continue my victory streak,” said Evans Rutto, who won three out of four marathons. And at his three victories, one of them was in London, he was never slower than 2:06:18 hours.
In the women’s race the winner of last year Constantina Tomescu-Dita will run. For the Romanian the title defense will be a piece of hard work. Two months before the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon she was running the World Championships’ marathon in Helsinki. In a hard race she had won the bronze medal.
As every year the marathon spectacle par excellence will take place in New York. Last year the ING New York City Marathon replaced the BAA Boston Marathon as biggest marathon of all times. In 1996 in Boston, during the 100th year jubilee edition, 35,868 participants had reached the finish, while there were 36,562 finishers in New York eight years later. One expects a similar number of finishers this year, since over 52,000 runners registered for New York.
And the top field will be excellent as well, although it is not easy to run a world class time on the difficult course. Defending champion Hendrick Ramaala (South Africa) is running as well as the winner of the Osaka Marathon Jelena Prokopcuka (Latvia/2:22:56). And marathon world record holder Paul Tergat will run. The Kenyan had run 2:04:55 hours at the real,- Berlin Marathon two years ago. But not only in Chicago could this mark be in danger. Haile Gebrselassie will run his second serious marathon in Amsterdam on October 16th. The goal for the Ethiopian, who finished third in London 2002 with 2:06:35 hours, is obvious: a new world record. “Haile can break the world record in Amsterdam,” said even Paul Tergat.
