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The most important city marathon races have merged to the Big Five.

This was announced by the race directors during the World Championships

in athletics in Helsinki. Represented among this ‘Golden League’ of the

marathon is the real ,- BERLIN-MARATHON, which will take place on

September 25^th with a total of 40.000 runners. Among them will be the Olympic Champion Mizuko Noguchi.

The BAA Boston Marathon, LaSalle Chicago Marathon , ING New York

City Marathon and Flora London Marathon are also included to the Big

Five besides Berlin. Boston and London are run in April, Berlin in

September, Chicago in October and New York in November. In Helsinki all

five race directors were present: Guy Morse (Boston), David Bedford

(London), Mary Wittenberg (New York), Carey Pinkowski (Chicago) und Mark Milde (Berlin).

“We are at the beginning of our planning"

The regulations are not fixed yet. “We are at the beginning of our

planning. But we have brought together the five most successful

marathon races. We are competitive and proud events and we will make

something of this together”, said Mary Wittenberg, the race director of

New York.

„We intend to create something like the Major series in golf or the

Grand Slam in tennis. We want to make the marathon more attractive for

the public. We intend to reach more media interest through the whole

year”, Berlin’s race director Mark Milde said.