Frankfurt Marathon jubilee edition - This year’s jubilee edition of the BMW Frankfurt Marathon will see a clash of the past two champions, who had both improved the course record by a significant margin: Kenyans Wilson Kipsang and Gilbert Kirwa. Both will return for the 30th edition of the Marathon on 30 October, according to the online RaceNewsService Organisers of Germany’s oldest city marathon, which boosts a Gold Label for Road Races awarded by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), said they expect a record number of around 14,000 runners to compete on the fast city loop course.

“We are ready to make the next step,” said Jo Schindler, the Race Director of the BMW Frankfurt Marathon.

His race has made an astonishing progress in the past few years and has established itself as one of the fastest marathons in the world. After three course records in three years and an improvement from 2:07:58 to 2:04:57, the BMW Frankfurt Marathon has come quite close to the official world record time of Haile Gebrselassie (2:03:59).

That is why organisers decided to offer a world record bonus for the first time in the event’s history. If the record should be broken, the winner would take a total of 145,000 euros, which is the highest prize money available in marathon running on German speaking territory.

It was in October 2010 when the race got worldwide recognition because of Wilson Kipsang’s sensational winning time.

Clocking 2:04:57 the Kenyan became the eighth fastest marathon runner ever at that time.

“Because of this superb time a lot more world-class athletes are now interested in coming to Frankfurt. They now know that it is possible to run very fast there,” said Christoph Kopp, who is responsible for the elite field of the BMW Frankfurt Marathon. “Additionally we were able to further improve the course. This year there will be eight bends less in the inner city,” he added.

A very strong opponent has already been signed for the BMW Frankfurt Marathon as well: Gilbert Kirwa had won the race in 2009, when he improved the course record to 2:06:14. Coming back to Frankfurt two years later, the 25 year-old Kenyan also targets a very fast time after some weaker performances in the past 12 months.

Pana 21/06/2011