FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tirunesh Dibaba heads high quality women's field at the
2018 BMW BERLIN-MARATHON - Phicomm is the new Timing Partner
The elite women's field for the 45th edition of the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON
2018 is the strongest for many years. At the top of the entries is one of
the best female distance runners of all time, Tirunesh Dibaba from
Ethiopia. The 32-year-old has won three gold medals at consecutive Olympic
Games (2008 and 2012) and five World Championships from 2003 to 2013. For
good measure, Dibaba has also four World Cross Country titles to her
credit. Her personal best is 2:17:56, set in finishing second at the 2017
Virgin Money London Marathon which makes her the third fastest woman in the
history of the marathon. Dibaba is keen to beat this time in Berlin and,
given ideal weather conditions, might even have a chance of attacking Paula
Radcliffe's world record of 2:15:25, set by the Briton in 2003.
Alongside Tirunesh Dibaba on the start line will be three other women with
best times under 2:20. The 35-year-old Gladys Cherono from Kenya has won
Berlin twice before, in 2015 and 2017 and her best of 2:19:25 was achieved
in the first of those victories.
The most experienced contender is the 38-year-old Edna Kiplagat. The Kenyan
has the most successful record of any of her rivals in Berlin, having twice
won the world title (2011 and 2013) and taken silver in 2017. In addition
she has won the 2010 TCS New York City Marathon, the Virgin Money London
Marathon in 2014 and the 2017 Boston Marathon. The scale of her
achievements doesn't end there because Kiplagat also has numerous podium
finishes in the Abbott World Marathon Majors series having finished
runner-up in London on three occasions from 2011 to 2013, third in Tokyo in
2016 and second in Chicago the same year.
Yebrugal Melese (28) from Ethiopia is a very experienced runner. She has 14
marathons under her belt and, amongst others, won the Prague Marathon in
2015, and placed 2nd in Chicago (2017 and 2018) as well as in Paris (2014)
and in Frankfurt (2017). She ran her personal best placing 3rd in Dubai in
January 2018.
Aselefech Mergia should have good memories of Berlin since it was here that
the 33-year-old Ethiopian won a bronze medal at the 2009 World
Championships. She also has an impressive record in the Dubai Marathon,
achieving a hat-trick of wins in 2011, 2012 and 2015. Her personal best of
2:19:31 was set when winning the Dubai title in 2012.
Another Ethiopian to be taken into consideration is Ruti Aga who ran her
best time of 2:20:41 in Berlin last year when she was second while Japan's
Mizuki Matsuda won her debut marathon this year in Osaka with 2:22:44.
The BMW BERLIN-MARATHON is one of the world's leading marathons, not least
because its super-fast course has been the stage for ten world records -
three by women, seven by men. Since 2003 all six world marathon records
were run in Berlin including the current top time of 2:02:57 by Dennis
Kimetto. In 2001 Japan's Naoko Takahashi became the first woman to break
2:20 when the Olympic Marathon Champion from the previous year ran 2:19:43.
Highly popular bib numbers for the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON are always sold out
since 2006. Runners have to apply in October for a lottery system which
determines who will receive a starting place. Additionally travel agents,
charity partners and sponsors receive a certain number of guaranteed
entries. 43,852 runners were registered for the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON 2017.
The BMW BERLIN-MARATHON is part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors (AWMM),
the group of six leading marathons in the world which was founded in 2006.
They comprise Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York. The
winners and leading finishers at the six AWMM races earn points according
to their positions which culminate in an overall men's and women's winner
at the end of a one-year-cycle.
The prize money for the winners amounts to US$ 250,000 each. Since 2016 the
series has also included wheelchair athletes. An age group category for
mass runners has now been added with a points system to decide men's and
women's winners. Series XII begins with the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON 2018 and
will end with the Berlin race in 2019. Further information about the
scoring system for elite and mass competitors can be found at:
www.worldmarathonmajors.com
Phicomm is the new Timing Partner of the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON
Phicomm, provider of overall smart life solutions, is this year's event's
official co-sponsor as well as the Timing Partner.
For Phicomm's president, who is a running enthusiast himself, it was an
easy decision to participate in Germany's biggest marathon. "As a
passionate runner, I have finished several marathons", said Guoping Gu,
president of Phicomm (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Furthermore the 45th BMW
BERLIN-MARATHON perfectly integrates in Phicomm's strategical realignment
in the area of smart life products. "With our smart health products, we
support customers, who strive for a healthy and athletic lifestyle.
Currently we are developing a new fitness wristband, which tracks the
runner's progress when he trains." Phicomm's new fitness band W3 will enter
the German market in September 2018. Phicomm also supports the Chinese
national association for athletics. 46 runners will be invited to travel to
Germany's capital Berlin to one-up their personal high scores and to join
"Team Phicomm".
Christian Jost, Managing Director of SCC EVENTS, is enthusiastic about the
commitment by the Chinese high-tech provider: "With Phicomm, the BMW
BERLIN-MARATHON gains an innovative partner in communications technology,
who at the same time is passionate about running. In our view, this is a
promising combination. We are looking forward to the cooperation."
About Phicomm:
Phicomm (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. was founded in 2009, headquartered in
Shanghai, China. With homeusers as its primary target clients, PHICOMM
embraced smart home strategy to build itself into a smart home maker, a
smart hardware provider, as well as a cloud service operator. PHICOMM's key
products include terminal-cloud integration networking facilities, smart
home hardware, service robots and cloud services. With deep knowledge in
near field wireless communication, Internet of Things, artificial
intelligence, big data and cloud computation, PHICOMM successfully builds
its brand image: PHICOMM-Smart Home. Over the years, with the help of the
subsidiaries in Germany and India, PHICOMM pursues its global presence, and
expands sales across Europe, Asia-Pacific, Russia, Middle East, Africa and
North America. More information on phicomm.com and
www.facebook.com/PhicommEurope/
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