News Archive

SCC-RUNNING proudly announced a new annual record for its events. In 2003 the

Berlin organisers started 15 different events with exactly 123,778 entrants.

For the first time more than 120,000 athletes were registered. In comparison to

2002 this means an increase of roughly 15 percent. “It is the most

successful year in our history of running events“, race director Horst

Milde said. It was 40 years ago when he started the first Cross Country Race in

Berlin. From then on until the end of last year SCC-RUNNING has organised 345

events with altogether 1,264,110 entries.

While the New Year was started successfully with the traditional race on New

Years Day (3,600 people took part) another major figure could be exceeded this

year: It is expected that more than 125,000 people will enter this years

races.

SCC-RUNNING already is the worlds second biggest organiser of running

events. From those organisers who annually organise a couple of races only the

New York Road Runners Club is bigger than SCC-RUNNING. Their main race is of

course the New York City Marathon which had a record number of finishers

recently (34,703) and was the biggest marathon in 2003.

There were new records at the real,- BERLIN MARATHON as well. For the first

time more than 30,000 runners finished the race (30,709), making this event the

fourth biggest marathon worldwide behind New York, Chicago and London. If you

add Inline Skaters, wheelchair athletes and kids the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON had

55,539 entries from 99 nations. Additionally 11,000 took part at the breakfast

jog.

“More and more people realize that running is a healthy sport. Because

of this I am convinced that our sport will grow and continue to be

attractive“, Horst Milde said. It is estimated that 15 million people do

jogging in Germany.

Hiroaki Chosa, the president of the Association of International Marathons

and Road Races (AIMS), also expects running to have a great future: “I am

convinced that running will further develop“, he said (see Interview with

Hiroaki Chosa for more details). The International Association of Athletics

Federations (IAAF) has also realized the potential of the running events. The

IAAF cooperates with AIMS and a number of road races as well. “Running

has become a cultural phenomenon. Who would have expected that? Just 50 years

ago it was impossible to foresee such a development. Additionally running today

has an important global significance as far as health is concerned“,

Helmut Digel said. He is the Vice-President of the IAAF.