Iaroslav Musinschi took the 8th edition of the METRO Group Duesseldorf Marathon with a course record of 2:08:32. With his performance the 33-year-old Moldavian also established a European season’s lead. Additionally he is the first European marathon runner this year to clock a sub-2:10 time. Russia’s Natalya Volgina won the women’s race with 2:30:47.
In ideal weather conditions with temperatures of around 12° Celsius at the start Musinschi ran his own pace right from the start. Guided by a pacemaker he reached the half way mark in 1:04:04 and then almost kept his pace through the second half. Musinschi was more than three and a half minutes ahead of Andrej Toptun (Ukraine/2:12:08) and Pawel Ochal (Poland/2:13:23). Germany’s Falk Cierpinski came in fourth with 2:17:18.
“I am very happy with my time,” said Musinschi, who had entered the race with a personal record of 2:10:15 from Ljubljana last year. “I have to thank my pacemaker, who did a great job. He kept me in schedule for this result until the 30 k mark.” It was 21-year-old Lani Rutto of Kenya who did this pacing job until the 30 k mark, which he reached in 1:31:05.
Although Musinschi would be among the favourites at the European Championships in Barcelona this summer he will not feature in the heat of Spain. “I will run other races and then prepare for an autumn marathon,” said Musinschi, who added that his next marathon will likely be in Frankfurt on 31 October.
In the women’s race Mehtap Sizmaz had been well ahead early in the race. Passing the 10 k mark in 34:26 she was on target for a time of around 2:25. But that was too fast for the runner from Turkey, who had come to Dusseldorf with a personal best of 2:31:13. She slowed, ran into trouble and finally dropped out of the race. Natalya Volgina, who has a PB of 2:27:32, had taken the lead after around 25 k. At the finish she was almost one minute ahead of Volha Salevich (Belarus/2:31:41) and Svetlana Semova (Russis/2:33:01). Melanie Kraus (Germany) was fourth with 2:36:00 and missed the national qualification time for the European Championships by three minutes. Norway’s Kirsten Otterbu took fifth place with 2:36:22 and it is understood that she has qualified for Barcelona with this time.
“It is great for me to come back and win, because I had an injury and could not compete for one year,” said the 33-year-old Natalya Volgina.
Adding all running events, a record number of 13,000 athletes had entered the METRO Group Duesseldorf Marathon. Among them were 4,200 marathon runners. “We saw a record race and we are proud to be the fastest German spring marathon,” said Race Director Jan Winschermann, who had not expected that the three year-old course record set by Kenyan Bellor Yator would be broken.
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