FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Stephen Kiprotich, Wilson Kipsang, Edna Kiplagat and Priscah Jeptoo
Challenge For AIMS Best Marathon Runner Of The Year Award
A quartet stacked with talent comprising Stephen Kiprotich and Wilson
Kipsang on the men's side and Edna Kiplagat and Priscah Jeptoo for the
women are contenders for the AIMS Best Marathon Runner (BMR) of the year
Award, which will be presented in Athens to a male and a female athlete for
the first time on 8th November. The award's announcement will form the
crowning moment of a gala to be staged by the Association of International
Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) in cooperation with the Hellenic
Athletics Federation (SEGAS) in Athens to honour the winners. This will
take place two days before the Athens Classic Marathon, which will be
staged by SEGAS on 10th November, a race which has attracted over 30,000
participants in this and its associate events.
After the Berlin Marathon the AIMS Executive Board nominated candidates for
this inaugural award. Board members have taken into account performances
over the past twelve months from October 2012 to September 2013. With the
candidates now confirmed, every AIMS member race has one vote to determine
the winner. There are currently more than 350 AIMS member races.
Stephen Kiprotich and Wilson Kipsang are the contenders for the men's
title. This year Uganda's Stephen Kiprotich added the World Championships
gold medal to his Olympic title when he ran 2:09:51 in Moscow. But the gold
from London 2012 falls outside the period that determines the AIMS Best
Marathon Runner of the Year. Prior to his World Championship triumph, the
24 year-old Kiprotich finished sixth in the London Marathon with 2:08:05.
Stephen Kiprotich was one place behind Wilson Kipsang, who clocked 2:07:47
in London. When the 31-year-old Kenyan arrived in Berlin in the last week
in September, he was known as the runner who had missed the world record by
just four seconds with his time of 2:03:42 in Frankfurt in 2011. However,
Kipsang atoned for that miss in impressive style, breaking the world record
by 15 seconds to set the new mark of 2:03:23.
Edna Kiplagat and Priscah Jeptoo are vying for honours in the women's
award. When they raced each other in this year's London Marathon, the 29
year-old Jeptoo won the title in 2:20:15, which was the fastest in the
world between the beginning of October 2012 and the end of September 2013 –
the time period AIMS has set for evaluating the candidates. Jeptoo will run
her second marathon of the year in New York in November, but this will not
count towards this year's award.
The 34 year-old Kiplagat finished runner-up to Jeptoo in London with
2:21:32. The Kenyan then retained her World Championship marathon title,
running 2:25:44 in warm conditions in Moscow. Kiplagat's success was a
landmark as she became the first woman to win consecutive World
Championship marathons.
The day after the AIMS BMR Gala the award winners will visit the birthplace
of their event. The annual opening ceremony of the Athens Classic Marathon
will take place at the Marathon Tomb, marking the mass grave of the Greek
soldiers who died in the battle in 490 BC and situated nearby the town of
Marathon, the town that gave the event its name. Following the ceremony,
the Marathon Flame, which has travelled worldwide to various marathons
during the past seven years, will be lit overlooking the start line of the
Athens Classic Marathon.
More than 11,000 runners will begin their race on the authentic marathon
course on the morning of Sunday, 10th November. The course starts in
Marathon, circles around the Marathon Tomb and then over the hills towards
Athens, where runners will be rewarded for their efforts on a testing
course with a grandstand finish in the Panathenaikon Stadium, the old
marble Olympic Arena from the first modern Games of 1896. Races of shorter
distances will begin in Athens and also finish inside the stadium. A
further 20,000 runners have entered these events. While registration for
the shorter races is closed, entries for the marathon are still open. The
Athens Classic Marathon will feature an international elite field and this
will be announced in due course.
More information and online entry is available at: www.athensclassicmarathon.gr
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