FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Monika Klementová
Prague International Marathon
+420 224 919 209
Europeans triumph in Volkswagen Marathon Prague
It was a fantastic day for a race. After days of erratic weather, the
clouds parted to make way for today's marathoners. The sunny conditions
increased smiles and brought more people to cheer on our incredible runners
along the course. However, the hotter temperatures slowed down times as
the heat began to take its toll on the runners
President Vaclav Klaus, of the Czech Republic, started nearly 4,000
marathoners on their way this morning along the 42195m Volkswagen Marathon
Prague Course.
The new marathon course juiced up the runners with more to enjoy along the
way. Spectacular views, reduced time on the highway and two times through
the most beautiful parts of old Prague brought spirits up and increased
motivation. All the wonderful changes to the Prague International Marathon
now makes this new route one of the most beautiful and interesting Marathon
courses in the world.
After the start, a group of 15 set the pace for 2:09. Unfortunately, this
pace became unreal with this weather. After 10a.m., the temperature
increased over 20 degrees. Slowly this group of 15 started to disperse,
with some falling behind. On the 30th km, only one runner remained from
this group, Riri of Kenya. Riri, a marathon favorite, was now at the lead,
yet it didn't last long. On the 36th km, he had to stop and it looked like
he was giving up for good. After a group of three past him, something
seemed to push him to continue on and he ended up finishing in 4th place
with at time of 2:13:50.
It was a great surprise that 2 out of 3 of the top runners were from
Portugal and between them a debut runner in 2nd from Kenya. It has been
years since someone from Europe, and not Africa, has won the marathon.
Ornelas Helder, of Portugal came in first with a time of 2:11:49 at a safe
distance of 47 seconds ahead of Chelimo. Finishing 2nd, was Luka K.
Chelimo of Kenya making his debut run, here in Prague, with a time of
2:12:36. Not far behind, coming in 3rd was Paulo C. Gomes of Portugal at
2:12:51. Joseph Riri, a marathon favorite, recovered nicely after a short
stop, coming in 4th, just 2:01 minutes after the winner.
Helder was surprised that during the last kilometers he was overtaking one
African after another.
Once again, Pavel Faschingbauer, led Czechs to the finish line, coming in
7th with an overall time of 2:18:55. Pavel continues to be the reigning
champion of the Czech Republic. This year's time was only 1 minute and 30
seconds off from last year's. Yet, with the increased temperatures, the
time was comparable to last year's time. Unfortunately, he missed the
qualification time of 2:15 required for the World Championships in Oslo by
4 minutes.
Not far behind Pavel F., countryman Pavel Novak arrived at 2:23:38 and Leos
Pelouch with the time of 2:26:25.
Nailya Yulamanova of Russia arrived as the 1st woman at the finish line
with a time of 2:33:10. A couple of minutes later, Malgorzata Sobanska of
Poland arrived at 2:35:02. Not long after we had a wonderful surprise with
Czech's own Veronika Brychcinova coming in as the 3rd female runner at
2:40:50, just over 7 minutes after Nailya. It was great to see a Czech
woman within the top three women finishers. Veronika broke her personal
record with a big 21 minutes leap ahead, making her the women's champion of
the Czech Republic. Amazing. She said her success was a result of her
experience from the past. She kept a slower pace at the beginning and then
a steady pace throughout the rest of the race.
A total of 3,200 runners finished within the 6 hours allotted for the
marathon.
Today's Garnier Junior Marathon runners came in with smiles blazing. Each
team had 10 members for the relay race. Nine runners did 4000m each and
the last ran 6195m. The Sport High School of Pardubice came out on top with
a time of 2:35:54. Jilemnice and Cesky Budejovice came in just behind them
in 2nd and 3rd place. Many were shy to come to the winner's podium, yet in
the end they stepped up to shine in their moment of victory with smiles
wide.
Another great new course was selected for the Algida In-line competitive
race on Saturday. There was more asphalt for increased speed and chips
used for official measurement of times. The top 3 competitors were Mazur
Witold coming in at 18:36,01, Jan Pecka at 19:04,04 and Tomas Ptacina with
a time of 19:23,07.
To welcome this year's participants in the Marathon Weekend Events, there
was a bigger and better Marathon Sport Expo at a great new location. The
Expo took place at the Prumyslovy Palace, Vystaviste in Prague 7. Over
5,000 square meters full of space for more than 60 vendors with all the
latest sporting goods and more. Throughout the 3-day expo, there were
numerous contests for free merchandise, flight tickets, Nutritional
Seminars and of course the traditional pasta party on Saturday.
All in all, it was a fabulous Marathon Weekend, each day getting improving
upon the next and tens of thousands of spectators on the big marathon day.
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