Posted: January 2, 2007

Athletics: 3,900 runners at the Berlin New Year’s Day Run

SCC RUNNING started off the running year 2007 at noon at the Brandenburg Gate with 3,900 participants. The runners joined in the festive atmosphere along the 4 k course without timekeeping or a competitive character at the 36th Berlin New Year’s Day Run. The course led primarily down and back the grand boulevard Unter den Linden to the Brandenburg Gate. The director of the ARD capital television studio, Werner Sonne, sent off the runners with the starting shot and then joined in himself. In lieu of a registration fee, donations were collected for UNICEF. Record year for SCC-RUNNING Once again, SCC-RUNNING has concluded the year 2006 with a new record total number of participants. From January 1 to December 31, 2006, a total of exactly 144,599 athletes registered for the 20 different events. That is over 4,000 more participants than in 2005 (140,450). SCC-RUNNING thus fortified its position as the by far largest German running event organiser and one of the largest in the world. All in all, SCC-RUNNING now counts 1,682,425 registrations for 407 events organised since 1967—including the 2007 New Year’s Day Run. “We are pleased that we were once again able to top last year’s numbers. It is our goal for the new year to maintain at the least the level for 2006 and to further develop our races both as events for the masses and for elite athletes,” stated the manager of SCC-RUNNING Rüdiger Otto. Some of the highlights from the past year were two top world performances of the year, provided by Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia) at the real,- BERLIN MARATHON (2:05:56) and by Edith Masai (Kenya) at the Vattenfall BERLIN HALF MARATHON (67:16). “For the first time ever, we thus succeeded in ending the year with two top performances,” stated Race Director Mark Milde. Sponar and Parsiegla won the New Year’s Eve Run On the last day of the year, Lennart Sponar (Berlin SV 92) and Karsta Parsiegla (SC Charlottenburg Berlin) won the 9.9 km main race at the 31st Berlin New Year’s Eve Run. While Sponar crossed the finish after 32:47 minutes, Parsiegla crossed the finish line in Mommsen Stadium in 42:09. With 1,868 participants, a good 150 more runners participated in the Berlin New Year’s Eve Run than last year. “Despite the mixed weather, the turn-out for this events was quite satisfactory. There were only happy faces to be seen, and many runners entered the race in costumes. And they keep coming up with new costume ideas,” stated Rüdiger Otto. The SCC-RUNNING figures 2006 Registrations Event 39,823 real,- BERLIN MARATHON 20,419 Vattenfall Berlin Half Marathon 14,276 HypoVereinsbank TEAM Relay 11,731 AVON RUNNING Berlin Women’s Run 11,000 real,- BERLIN MARATHON Breakfast Run 9,768 MINI-MARATHON 8,115 Vattenfall City-Night 7,932 real,- BERLIN MARATHON Skating 4,010 Berlin New Year’s Day Run 3,889 Kondius Berlin Marathon Relay 3,215 RBB Run 2,142 Berlin Cross-Country Run 2,053 Berlin Road Race 1,868 New Year’s Eve Run 1,558 Berlin 30-km Trainings Run and Nordic Walk 1,055 real,- BERLIN MARATHON Bambini Run + Kids Race 813 XRace 394 Berlin Burn-off-the-Christmas-Goose Run 254 BERLIN MARATHON 12-km Skating 180 Berlin Team Marathon 104 Berlin Easter Bunny Run 144,599 for 2006 (registered runners) The SCC-RUNNING Programme for 2007 January 20, 2007 29th Berlin Team Marathon April 1, 2007 27th Vattenfall BERLIN HALF MARATHON April 8, 2007 7th Berlin Easter Bunny Run April 22, 2007 4th RBB Run May 12, 2007 24th AVON RUNNING Berlin Women’s Run June 20/21, 2007 8th Berlin TEAM Relay June 30, 2007 2nd Airport-Run August 4, 2007 16th Vattenfall City Night August 19, 2007 31st Berlin Road Race August 19, 2007 6th XRace September 2, 2007 5th 30-km Training Run September 29/30, 2007 34th BERLIN MARATHON November 4, 2007 44th Berlin Cross-Country Run November 18, 2007 15th Kondius Berlin Marathon Relay December 26, 2007 9th Berlin Burn-off-the-Christmas-Goose Run December 31, 2007 32nd Berlin New Year’s Eve Run January 1, 2008 37th Berlin New Year’s Day Run The Dates of the World Marathon Majors Series 2007 April 16th Boston Marathon April 22nd Flora London Marathon August 25th WM-Marathon Osaka (men) September 2nd WM-Marathon Osaka (women) September 30th BERLIN MARATHON October 7th LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon November 4th ING New York City Marathon Further information is available online at: www.scc-events.com. Comment on this story. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest

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