Press Release - Frankfurt Marathon - 10/1/15

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

      Marathon organizers calling Start chance for Philipp Pflieger 
                        at the Olympic Games
 
Marathon organizers calling Start chance for Philipp Pflieger  
However, as defined by the DLV norm for a launch at the 2016 Olympic Games 
in Rio is 2:12:15 hours. So aspiring athletes is the 28-year-old Pflieger 
taken as the Olympic opportunity. What is this for his motivation and even 
worse means for the motivation of young runners to indulge in the 
exhausting marathon career with usually only two major competitions a year, 
should be clear. Especially as the international standard set by the 
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the 
International Olympic Committee (IOC), is at 2:17 hours. The DLV justified 
his tough qualifying time in order to want to send only marathoners to Rio, 
who have the chance to win a place among the top eight. Only the 
international competition in the Marathon is much more pronounced than in 
special disciplines such as javelin throwing or long jump. There is hardly 
any other Olympic sport, in so many different nations at the start as the 
running events. But German athletes will it virtually excluded from their 
own association. This hard stance is completely incomprehensible.
 
Especially since the same association has just arbitrarily decided the 
course organizers to increase their compulsory contribution per participant 
to 100% (originally were planned even 400%). Allegedly in order to promote 
the sport of running. But there is no concept of how these funds are useful 
used for running. It is a levy that will largely accrue to the national 
associations of the DLV, but what they intend to do with the funds, is 
completely uncertain. Some national associations have publicly stated that 
thus one's own administration is to be financed.
 
The Marathon makers in Germany have not only announced their participation 
in the promotion of German athletes, but are actively involved for many 
years. They are the ones who developed the Marathon Sport in recent 
decades, support the German runners in their international fields and 
offers them a platform. However, if your association with standards that do 
not apply to runners from neighboring European countries, its athletes 
blocked the way to the international top, it slows on the way there almost, 
then thwarts any effort of this Marathon organizers.
 
How important the marathon at the German Athletics Association takes notes, 
the wording in the German Athletics Regulations (DLO), in which the legs 
are called over the classic distance as "Stadium distant events". That may 
be formulated unhappy, but shows more clearly how you look at the road 
running scene when DLV - away flat.

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