Marathon News - Challengers Added to Berlin Marathon Field

Aug-22-2007

Challengers Added to Berlin Marathon Field
by David Monti
(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

Organizers of the 34th real, - Berlin Marathon announced today that four strong Kenyan athletes will line up for the Sept. 30 race to challenge defending champion Haile Gebrselassie.

The group is led by the veteran Sammy Korir whose 2:04:56 second place finish at Berlin in 2003 is still the second-fastest marathon ever run.
Korir, 35, ran last year's edition of the race, splitting 25 km in 1:15:48, but he dropped out in the 26th kilometer with a hamstring injury. Korir has not recorded a marathon finish in 2007.

Philip Manyim, 29, who won Berlin in a personal best 2:07:41 in 2005, has also been contracted by the race. He ran poorly at this year's Boston Marathon finishing 18th in 2:21:34. Joseph Riri, 33, ran a career best
2:06:49 at Berlin in 2004 when he finished second. This year he was seventh at Oita (2:13:37) and fourth at Prague (2:13:50). Also, the former world record holder in the steeplechase, Bernard Barmasai, 33, would like to improve on his 2:08:50 personal best set in Paris in 2006. He won last Sunday's half-marathon in Klagenfurt in 1:03:09.

Berlin remains the home of the men's marathon world record: 2:04:55 set by Paul Tergat in 2003. Gebrselassie, who recently showed excellent form winning the NYC Half-Marathon presented by NIKE in 59:24, has stated that Tergat's record will be his goal at Berlin.