FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mary Keitany Sets Sights On The Marathon
After Her Debut World Record In BIG 25 Berlin
After her phenomenal world record in the BIG 25 Berlin Mary Keitany looked
ahead to her next big goal, which will be the marathon. The 28 year-old
Kenyan had become the first female to clock a sub 1:20 time in a 25 k race,
when she ran 1:19:53 on Sunday in the German capital. In her first race at
the distance Keitany smashed the world record on the Berlin roads,
improving the mark by a staggering 2:20 minutes. With this performance she
has given another strong indication, that she is capable of becoming the
world's next great marathon runner. At the London Olympics in 2012 the
classic race will be the event she hopes to win and an attempt to break
Paula Radcliffe's legendary world marathon record may also be on the cards
in future.
One of her elder sisters once motivated Mary Keitany to start running.
While Mary Keitany was born in the Baringo District the daughter of a
farmer's family grew up in the Koibatek District (both belong to the Rift
Valley Province). Keitany has three sisters and one brother. Her eldest
sister started running at school. "I saw that she was talented and thought
that I should try this as well," says Mary Keitany. While her sister gave
up despite running on national level at school Mary came through all the
way to become the world's number one road runner.
At the BIG 25 Berlin race Mary Keitany was honoured with the AIMS/ASICS
World Athlete of the Year Award. In 2009 she had dominated the World Half
Marathon Championships and with a time of 66:36 minutes missed the world
record by just eleven seconds.
Mary Keitany started running at school but it was not before the age of 18
that she trained more seriously. She was at secondary school at that time.
It was not before the end of 2006, when she appeared in Europe for the
first time. She ran a half marathon and a road race in Spain at first. At
that time Mary Keitany was coached by Philip Singoei, who won the Eindhoven
Marathon in 2007 with 2:07:57. "In April 2007 Gianni Demadonna opened a
training camp in Iten, which is where Mary lives," explains her current
coach Gabriele Nicola, who works for Demadonna's management.
Mary Keitany soon joined in and then step by step Gabriele Nicola took over
as a coach. "In Iten I train with boys. My manager pays them to help us in
training," explains Mary Keitany, whose female training partners include
Peninah Arusei, the winner of the BIG 25 Berlin in 2008 and 2009, and
Helena Kirop, who won the Prague Marathon on Sunday. In 2007 Mary Keitany
won the silver medal in the World Half Marathon Championships, but then
pregnancy interrupted her running career.
"My son Jared was born in June 2008," says Mary Keitany. She is married to
Charles Koech, who has a 10 k PB of 27:56 and has run a 61:27 half
marathon. "Sometimes we train together. And we have a nanny to look after
our son."
"When Mary came back after giving birth we set some goals. The first one
was to qualify for the World Half Marathon Championships 2009 and to run
well. The next goal was to win the Abu Dhabi half marathon and then we set
our sights on breaking the world 25 k record in Berlin. All went very well
and she has achieved more than we had expected," says Gabriele Nicola, who
spends a lot of time overseeing the training of his runners in Iten. "But
we have a team of coaches and physios in Iten so that there is always
someone there to help."
The next step will now be the marathon. In autumn Mary Keitany plans to run
her debut at the distance. But already now she is doing milages that suit a
marahton runner. "Of course it can vary a lot, but she has run between 180
and 200 kilometres in her recent training already," explains Gabriele
Nicola, who intends to add some more kilometres to this during the
preparations for the marathon. "So far my longest training runs were 30
kilometres", says Mary Keitany. Asked about her biggest goals she first
mentions the Olympics in London in 2012. "It would be huge to win the
Olympic gold medal in the marathon." But there is also another major dream
in the future: "May be one day I am able to attack the world marathon
record," says Mary Keitany. But she very well knows how tough it will be to
break Paula Radcliffe's 2:15:25 from London 2003.
"Right now we can not speak about the marathon world record. But Mary has
the potential to go for it in the future. That does not mean that she will
break it. But there are not many runners who can even think of attacking
this record," says Gabriele Nicola. "Mary has great potential, we are lucky
to have her. We will only get a Mary Keitany every 20 years."
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