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The Messe Frankfurt Marathon celebrates its 25th anniversary with the renewal of a Kenyan rivalry, between Wilfred Kigen and Boaz Kimaiyo, who have won the race three times between them. Kigen, 31, and Kimaiyo, 30 both come from Eldoret, the heartland of Kenyan long distance running in the Rift Valley, but they train at opposite ends of the country. Kigen prefers to stay near to the capital, Nairobi, and train in the Ngong Hills, made famous by author Karen Blixen in her book, Out of Africa. Kimaiyo meanwhile trains at close to the 3000 metres in Kapsait, near the Ugandan border, at the camp founded by his elder brother, Eric, himself a 2.08 marathoner ten years ago.
Kigen won an extraordinary race last year, when five men were in the final straight together for the unusual finish inside the 100 years old FestHalle (Festival Hall), close to Frankfurt’s famous banking district. Kigen won in a sprint, with a new course record and personal best of 2.08.29. Kimaiyo, who had won in the two previous years, had dropped out with a hamstring injury by then.
The injury persisted, and forced Kimaiyo to drop out of the Los Angeles Marathon in March. But he has since had two months’ treatment in Italy, and is hoping that the injury to the left leg will permit at least a finish this time. He was confident enough on Friday to opt for the first group, which was will be paced to a 64min ‘half’, and Kigen says that Kimaiyo and another colleague, Peter Chebet are the men he fears most.
Kigen trains with former steeplechase world record holder, Wilson Boit Kipketer, who plans to run a marathon next year. Kigen welcomed the predicted 13 degree centigrade weather forecast for Sunday, saying, “If we have good weather and even pacing, I hope to be close to last year’s time.
The women’s race last year also produced a course record, 2.25.12 for Alevtina Biktimirova. Although she cannot return to defend, the title may go back to Russia, if debutant, Gulnara Vigovskaya fulfills the promise she showed in finishing 12th in the world 20k championships in Hungary three weeks ago. Vigoskaya, 25, ran 66.30 and finished among women who have run 2.24/25 for the full marathon.
But she won’t have an easy ride. Former sub-four 1500 metres woman, Kutre Dulecha should improve on her 2.30.06 debut win in Amsterdam last year, and another Ethiopian, Robe Tola won Hamburg earlier this year in a personal best 2.24.35. The other contender is Banuelia Kateswiga of Tanzania, who won in Madrid in early summer, and whose personal best is 2.24.59.
There will be an unusual adjunct to this year’s celebrations – a public showing of the top German TV detective series Tatort (Crime Scene), which was filmed at last year’s race. One of the fictional detectives runs the marathon, and is targeted on the start line by a disgruntled criminal, but a fun-runner is killed instead. The chase to catch the killer before he strikes again unfolds through the various stages of the race. The show goes out to the general public on Sunday evening, but the expected 12,000 marathoners can stay and see it three hours earlier in the FestHalle.
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