FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Four national aces in the cards at the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON
- Media accreditation is open
On September 29, the elite of the marathon world will be at the BMW
BERLIN-MARATHON. With the Ethiopian world class runners Guye Adola, Leul
Gebrselassie, Sisay Lemma and Birhanu Legese, the men's race is strongly
loaded (see press release from July 23). For the women, last year's winner
Gladys Cherono will face Vivian Cheruiyot, who will be competing for the
first time at the BMW BERLIN MARATHON (see press release from June 25). The
35-year-old won the London Marathon last year.
But the top German field also holds some aces up its sleeve that hope to
trump the competition on the streets of the capital. And these streets are
not foreign to them.
As Anna Hahner explained: "I will be standing at the starting line of the
BMW BERLIN-MARATHON for the fifth time, and I've never had the feeling that
it's my home race as much as I do this year. This year I started running
for the SCC EVENTS PRO TEAM and have spent a lot of training time in
Berlin. I am thrilled to be able to demonstrate what I have been
consistently training for this year at the end of September. Following many
changes and my debut at the Düsseldorf Marathon in April this year, I would
like to take the next step at the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON." Anna Hahner took
the first step into a successful season during the spring at the GENERALI
BERLIN HALF MARATHON with an eleventh place finish in 75:42 minutes.
Melat Yisak Kejeta won the Berlin Half Marathon last year with an
unchallenged start-to-finish victory in 69:04 minutes, then running for the
club PSV Grün-Weiß Kassel. Since then, the Ethiopian-born athlete has begun
competing for Laufteam Kassel. The 26-year-old received German citizenship
in March 2019. Melat Yisak Kejeta dreams of having the opportunity to
represent Germany at the Olympic Games. With a successful marathon debut in
Berlin, she could help pave the way to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Race Director Mark Milde also sees the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON as a stepping
stone to the big event in Asia: "I'm looking forward to the participation
of some strong German athletes, and we want to support them on their way to
qualifying for the Olympic Games."
Philipp Baar will also be enjoying some support. A while ago, the man from
Hagenow quit his job in personnel management in order to concentrate fully
on running. As part of this change, he joined the SCC EVENTS PRO TEAM. He
made his marathon debut in 2018 in Dusseldorf (2:16:17 hours) and competed
in the same year at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin. This
year, Philipp Baar placed among the top 20 in the Vienna Marathon. His big
goal is to compete in the Olympics in 2020.
Philipp Pflieger already brings prior Olympic experience into the race. In
2016, the top athlete for LG Telis Finanz Regensburg was the fastest German
marathon runner at the Rio de Janeiro Games. Shortly after the New Year at
the half marathon in Barcelona, the man from Baden-Württemberg made a clear
statement of his running ambitions with a convincing time of 63:32 minutes.
He followed with strong performances on the track this summer, completing a
10,000 m race in London in a time of 28:54.77 minutes. Due to illness, he
was not able to properly prepare for the GENERALI BERLIN HALF MARATHON, but
still managed to place 15th in a time of 64:22 minutes. He ran his best
race over the 42.195 kilometers distance in 2015 at the BMW
BERLIN-MARATHON. With a time of 2:12:50 hours, he set his personal best
here. Anyone who knows the freshly baked author of "Running at the Limit"
(Laufen am Limit), knows that he will do credit to the title of his book.
The BMW BERLIN-MARATHON forms the Abbott World Marathon Majors (AWMM) along
with Tokyo, Boston, London, Chicago and New York. For the first time the
BMW BERLIN-MARATHON on September 29 will mark the final race in the current
series. Further information can be obtained at the race website:
www.bmw-berlin-marathon.com
Online Media accreditation
Online accreditation is possible until 6th September. Thereafter at BMW
BERLIN-MARATHON mediacenter (Hotel InterContinental Berlin, Budapester
Strasse 2). Please note that in case of a later accreditation we can not
meet all wishes regarding access to special areas.
The accreditation entitles you to enter certain areas of the event grounds
within the framework of your reporting and research at the MARATHON EXPO
and the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON. Appropriately credentialed media is allowed to
attend all press conferences and use the media center's facilities during
operating hours. We provide a comfortable, full-service indoor location
including workspace, wifi and power stations. It is fully staffed by SCC
EVENTS media representatives. Race-Day services include large-format direct
feeds of the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON broadcast, real-time race updates, split
and finish times printouts and the post-race press conference.
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