mzungo.org says: previews like this make letsrun.com the great running site it is. THANKS!!We've got perhaps our best preview for you for the men's marathon. Ethiopia, Morocco, Kenya and Japan send the strongest teams to Berlin in 2009, with many of the world's top marathoning stars signed up for this year's race.
Ethiopia has perhaps the strongest team with road-racing superstar Deriba Merga leading the charge. Just look at what Merga has done in 6 months in 2009: Winner, Houston Marathon, course record. Winner, Boston Marathon. Winner, Ottawa 10k in 27:24. World record setter in 15k en route to the RAK Half Marathon, 41:29. That's insane. If he is in shape (when is he NOT in shape?), he is the man to beat in this race.
Or is he? He might not even be the best guy on his national team. Tsegay Kebede is the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist in the marathon (1 spot ahead of Merga) and is the 9th-fastest marathon runner of all time thanks to his 2:05:20 2nd-place finish behind Sam Wanjiru (not running) in London this year.
Oh, and Ethiopia's 3rd-best guy is a 2:06:30 marathoner named Yemane Tsegay. Yeah, we'd never really heard of him either.
But the Ethiopians will face a stiff test from...
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