Press Release - Hannover Marathon - 4/1/22

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                     HAJ Hannover Marathon On Sunday:

             Hannover returns with focus on German championships

The HAJ Hannover Marathon will be back on Sunday after a two-year gap due 
to the Corona pandemic. Returning with its 30th edition the race will 
feature the German Marathon Championships. Because of uncertainties 
regarding the Covid 19 situation in the build-up organisers decided to 
focus on the national championships this year and to only allow a limited 
international elite field. While Hendrik Pfeiffer and Rabea Schöneborn are 
the clear favourites in the race for the national title there might still 
be international overall winners. The HAJ Hannover Marathon is a World 
Athletics Label Road Race.

"It will be a very emotional return for all participants as well as for the 
organising team," said Race Director Stefanie Eichel. "We are really happy 
to come back with this race and we are well aware about our responsibility 
under the current conditions. Our approach is to make sure that our 
participants feel good and safe during our event." Including events at 
other distances the organisers of the HAJ Hannover Marathon set a limit of 
18,400 participants for this year. Close to 4,000 of them will run the 
classic distance.

A runner of Mongolia heads the start list of the HAJ Hannover Marathon: 
Byambajav Tseveenravdan has a personal best of 2:09:03 from Oita (Japan) in 
2020. While this remains his only sub 2:10 time he ran in the Olympic 
Marathon last summer and placed 55th. With this result Byambajav 
Tseveenravdan is in a similar performance range as Hendrik Pfeiffer, who 
was 50th in the tough Olympic race. The German has a personal best of 
2:10:18 from Sevilla in 2020, which makes him the clear favourite in the 
race for the German title on Sunday. "My goal is to qualify for the 
European Championships in Munich and to run a personal best in Hannover. It 
is a nice and fast course and I look forward to enjoy the atmosphere with 
spectators back along the course," said Hendrik Pfeiffer. 

While Hendrik Pfeiffer is likely to run in a group that targets a half 
marathon split time of 65:30 a few Kenyan athletes might go much faster on 
Sunday. Daniel Muteti is the second fastest runner on the start list with a 
personal best of 2:09:25. He clocked this time in Cape Town in 2019. 
However Daniel Muteti has not raced internationally in the past two years. 
It is a similar story with fellow-Kenyan Josphat Kiptis, who only competed 
once during this time. He will run his marathon debut on Sunday. While 
Josphat Kiptis features a promising half marathon PB of 60:21, he ran this 
back in 2015. 

Germany's Rabea Schöneborn is not only the big favorite in the title race 
but additionally she is the fastest woman on the start list. The runner 
from Berlin improved to 2:27:03 last spring in Enschede, where she missed a 
place on the German Olympic team by just nine seconds. It was her twin 
sister Deborah Schöneborn who qualified with a PB of 2:26:55 and then 
achieved a strong 18th place in the Olympic race. Looking at her sister's 
family record Rabea Schöneborn said: "I want to run a personal best on 
Sunday and rectify this."

There is one athlete who could be able to challenge Rabea Schöneborn in 
Hannover: Matea Parlov Kostro. The Croatian achieved a fine 21st place in 
the Olympic marathon in 2021 and has a personal best of 2:28:52. Matea 
Parlov Kostro's aim will be to qualify for the European Championships on 
Sunday.

Elite athletes with personal bests

Men:

Byambajav Tseveenravdan MGL 2:09:03
Daniel Muteti           KEN 2:09:25
Hendrik Pfeiffer        GER 2:10:18
Wilfred Kiptoo          KEN 2:13:55 
Martin Olesen           DEN 2:15:33
Archie Casteel          SWE 2:15:48
Marcus Schöfisch        GER 2:15:59
Frank Schauer           GER 2:16:30
Valdas Dopolskas        LTU 2:16:35
Tobias Blum             GER 2:16:57
Christian Steinhammer   AUT 2:17:19
Josphat Kiptis          KEN Debut

Women:

Rabea Schöneborn            GER 2:27:03
Matea Parlov Kostro         CRO 2:28:52
Vaida Zusinaite-Nekriosiene LTU 2:32:50
Runa Skorte Falck           NOR 2:33:52
Domenika Mayer              GER Debut

More information about the HAJ Marathon Hannover is available at: 
www.marathon-hannover.de 

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