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Giovanna Turchiarelli from Italy and Severin Widmer from Switzerland are the winners of the 37th real,- BERLIN MARATHON Inline Skating. German junior skater Katharina Rumpus surprised with a third place just as Felix Rijhnen with a fifth place.

The 14th edition of the Inline race at the real,- BERLIN MARATHON indicated once more that the skaters are not put off by difficult conditions. Severin Widmer had a special reason to celebrate because he won the race. “The rain did not matter to me. We do not specifically practise in rain but we train whatever the weather” stated the man from Switzerland who crossed the finish line before Gary Hekman (NED) and Thomas Boucher (FRA) in a time of 1:09:19 hrs. “We never got into dangerous situations although the surface was a bit slippery”, said Widmer after the race. Unlucky was the odds-on favourite Yann Guyader from France. He had problems at half the course with his skating shoes and could not finish the race.”

Turchiarelli in front of series winner Baena

Italian Giovanna Turchiarelli won the womens race for the second time after 2006 and prevented a fourth victory of exceptional Colombian athlete Cecilia Baena. “Cecilia was the one I had to beat, I knew that before. Therefore, I am very happy that I had an excellent sprint finish and although it was raining, everything worked out. Success-spoiled Baena was obviously very disappointed. Katharina Rumpus on the other hand was overwhelmed by her third place. “I competed for the first time in Berlin and went into the race with no expectations. I like racing in the rain. The atmosphere was better than at every other marathon”, stated Katharina Rumpus after the race.

Hobby skaters made it safe to finish line

Around 95 percent of all participants were hobby and fitness skaters. They managed the difficult conditions very well. Although the course was wet from the rain there were no more incidents than in previous years and all of them got off slightly.

Results men:

1 Widmer, Severin (SUI)   Luigino Rollerblade World Team  01:09:19 h

2 Hekman, Gary (NED)   The Netherlands  01:09:19 

3 Boucher, Thomas (FRA)   Rollerblade Speedodrom International 01:09:19 

Results women:

1 Turchiarelli, Giovanna (ITA)   Alessi World Team  01:22:25 h

2 Baena, Cecilia (COL)   POWERSLIDE MATTER World Team  01:22:25 h 

3 Rumpus, Katharina (GER)   POWERSLIDE MATTER World Team  01:22:26 h