Press Release - Dusseldorf Marathon - 4/29/13

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

      Race Director Jan Winschermann: Duesseldorf Will Further Improve

Ethiopia's Dereje Debele Tulu clocked a course record of 2:07:48 and 
fellow-Ethiopian Melkam Gizaw ran 2:26:24 to take take Sunday's METRO GROUP 
Marathon Duesseldorf. After the 11th edition of the event Race Director Jan 
Winschermann gave the following interview:

What do you think of the development of the METRO GROUP Marathon 
Duesseldorf after Sunday's race?

Jan Winschermann: We had more spectators than ever before which shows that 
the METRO GROUP Marathon Duesseldorf is more and more accepted by the 
people here. The atmosphere was fantastic. Regarding the elite race we are 
very happy with a men's course record and the second fastest time ever in 
the women's race. But I think we still have some potential for further 
improvement. For us it is also very important to keep the high standard in 
organisation. We will always try to improve and widen the service for our 
runners. 

What is possible regarding the number of participants in the marathon in t
he future?

Jan Winschermann: This year we had 4,250 marathon entries. 3,200 of them 
started the race. I don't think we can get many more German runners. But 
internationally we could well improve. At present around 15 percent of our 
runners are foreigners. We should get more than 20 percent relatively soon 
since we do worldwide promotion for our event. And generally our foreign 
runners are very happy with the standard of our organisation. The course is 
good for a much bigger field as well. I hope we will one day see 5,000 
finishers - but this will take some time. 

What are your goals regarding the elite race?

Jan Winschermann: We want to compete with other international marathons. So 
we will try to improve the course record towards 2:05. We now got a 2:07 
time. A couple of years ago such a result was considered a good one 
internationally. But times have changed. Of course we also want to improve 
the women's course record of 2:25:49. Overall we are planning to have a 
bigger elite field in the coming years.

In the past you often supported German runners. However this year you got a 
big number of national athletes cancelling their starts for various 
reasons. Will this have an influence for your future plans?

Jan Winschermann: We have invested heavily in some German runners in the 
past, but it did not work for us. We are disappointed, because we got 
nothing back. There is no trust. That is the reason why we will change our 
strategy. We will work less with German runners in the future. Instead we 
will shift the money towards the international elite field so that we will 
hopefully get faster times.

More information and online entry is available at: 
www.metrogroup-marathon.de 
 
                                   ###