Frankfurt am Main (dpa / lhe) – The Frankfurt marathon celebrates a comeback on Sunday (10:00) with a strong elite field after a two-year hiatus due to the crown. “Those were tough times when you worked for two years for the wastebasket,” Race Director Jo Schindler said on Friday, but stressed: “We’d be bad long-distance runners if we didn’t get through this phase.” About 12,000 runners will start the 39th edition of the Main marathon, with a total of 20,000 participants between relay and other competitions.
The elite camps for women and men are well occupied. The two German riders have big plans. National marathon champion Hendrik Pfeiffer (Hanover) and naturalized Filimon Abraham (Regensburg) from Eritrea want to beat the 2023 World Cup norm in Budapest (2:09:40).
“If things go really well, we can do 2:09:00 or 2:08:00. We want to annoy one or the other Ethiopian or Kenyan, “said Pfeiffer, 29. He originally wanted to start in the New York Marathon, but was not included in the elite camp there.” Now there is another variant. : Mainhattan instead of Manhattan, “he said. Abraham, who is the same age, wants to finish the 42.195 kilometers in Frankfurt for the first time after giving up the Hamburg Marathon in the spring.
Richard Ringer, who surprisingly won the title at the European Championships in Munich and who is afflicted with a foot injury, had to cancel. Local heroine Katharina Steinruck also suffered injuries at the European Championships, which prevented her from participating in her hometown.
Nine athletes are on the starting list for men, with best times of less than 2:10 hours. Ethiopian Betesfa Getahun leads this ranking with 2:05:28 hours. Eight women have running times of less than 2:25. Kenyan Sally Kaptich is fastest on the starting list with 2:21:09. Laura Hottenrott from Kassel wants to reduce her best time by 2:28:02 hours.
