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The real,- BERLIN MARATHON is Germany’s premier road running

event. It has been Germany’s biggest and best quality marathon for two

decades. And regarding the founding of the Big Five the overall quality

of the real,- BERLIN MARATHON should get even better in the near

future. The Big Five include the BAA Boston Marathon, the Flora London

Marathon, the LaSalle Banks Chicago Marathon, the ING New York City

Marathon and the real,- BERLIN MARATHON.

When the athletes

set off for the 32nd real,- BERLIN MARATHON on 25th September the race

will boost a record field of 40,000 runners plus walkers, wheelchair

athletes and handbikers. Additionally on the same day about 8,000

pupils take part in the real,- MINI-MARATHON. And on the day before

another 8,000 inline skaters will participate in this separated real,-

BERLIN MARATHON. Their race will be held in the afternoon in front of

an expected crowd of about 250,000. More than a million spectators are

expected to watch the race on Sunday. The Brandenburg Gate will once

again be the spectacular background of the finish.

This year

the focus will be pretty much on one athlete: Mizuki Noguchi. The

Olympic Marathon Champion from Athens in 2004 will run her first

marathon since her biggest triumph so far little more than a year ago.

It was four years ago, when the real,- BERLIN MARATHON had an Olympic

Champion in its elite field for the first time. In 2001 the gold medal

winner from Sydney 2000, Naoko Takahashi, became the first woman to

break 2:20 hours in Berlin, clocking 2:19:46.

During the last

five years Berlin’s women’s winner has always come from Japan. But

Mizuki Noguchi not only intends to continue this unique win streak. The

27 year-old wants to clearly improve her personal best of 2:21:18 from

Osaka in 2003. She might well become the third women to break the 2:20

barrier in Berlin. Last year Yoko Shibui had improved Naoko Takahashi’s

course record by five seconds to 2:19:41. While she had missed the

Asian record of Yingjie Sun (China/2:19:39) by just two seconds this

could well be in Mizuki Noguchi’s reach. Training in St. Moritz is said

to have gone very well – even better than before the Olympic Games.

While

Sonia O’Sullivan had to withdraw due to lack of form since her training

did not go as well as she had hoped to Luminita Zaituc has to be

watched. The number one German marathoner has a personal best of

2:26:01 so far. But the silver medallist from the Europeans in 2002

just needs to get the right race to clearly improve. The fast Berlin

course should suit her.

There will be huge Japanese media

interest in the real,- BERLIN MARATHON once again. And while the race

is shown live on German TV (ARD/RBB) it will also be broadcasted live

in Japan by Fuji TV.

The men’s race will not feature an

Olympic Champion but at least an Olympic medallist. South Korea’s

Bong-Ju Lee had been second at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. He then

went on to win the BAA Boston Marathon in 2001, stopping a Kenyan win

streak of ten first places in a row, and improved to 2:07:20 when he

was second at the Tokyo Marathon in 2000.

As in Boston in 2001

Bong-Ju Lee will meet tough opposition from Kenya in Berlin. Kenyan

runners have dominated the real,- BERLIN MARATHON in recent years.

Since 1999 the winner has always been a Kenyan. And two of them will be

running again: Joseph Ngolepus was the winner in 2001 while Raymond

Kipkoech triumphed a year later. Additionally there will be another

former winner of the BAA Boston Marathon in Berlin’s elite field:

Kenyan Robert Cheruiyot had won that race in 2003. It was in the same

year, when Michael Rotich had won the Paris Marathon with a course

record of 2:06:33. The Kenyan will now try to win the real,- BERLIN

MARATHON on 25th September. But he will not be the runner with the

fastest marathon time in the field. Titus Munji had been third in the

legendary world record race in the real,- BERLIN MARATHON 2003. Behind

fellow Kenyans Paul Tergat (2:04:55) and Sammy Korir (2:04:56) he had

clocked 2:06:15 for third place. Now Titus Munji comes back to Berlin,

aiming to be number one. But former Moroccan Driss El Himer (France)

could as well produce an upset for the Kenyans.

ELITE RUNNERS IN THE 32nd real,- BERLIN MARATHON

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