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Running Review

Berlin running events show extraordinary speedy performance

2001-12-30

The big Berlin road races made news in the world this last year 2001. At the 28th real,- BERLIN-MARATHON three world records fell when Naoko Takahashi bettered the marathon world record previously held by Tegla Loroupe to 2:19:46 hours. At the same time Naoko Takahashi recorded official leading world records at the 25km mark with 1:22:31 hours and 30km mark with 1:39:02 hours.

But already in spring there was some big news. Fabian Roncero of Spain ran a European record of 59:52 minutes at the 21st BERLIN HALFMARATHON. It was also the fastest time of the year. He covered the last 10km in less than 28 minutes.

A couple of weeks later another fine performance was shown on the streets in Berlin when Rodgers Rop ran a new world record of 1:13:44 on the now less frequent contested 25km distance. Berlin became truly a capital for running fast!

In the long history of the BERLIN-MARATHON 8 world records have been established by now: in 1977 Christa Vahlensieck recorded the first world best performance for women, in 1988 Dadi Tesfaye broke the juniors world record, in 1997 the team performance from the Kenyan men established a new record, 1998 Ronaldo da Costa had his record-breaking run before a year later Tegla Loroupe bettered her own record by four seconds. In the year 2001 Naoko Takahashi was the great hero with three records at the same time.

For the BERLIN HALFMARATHON it was also already second European record, while the 25km had their second world record. Berlin is truly a city of records.

Blood Tests

Due to the initiative of the big five marathon races of Boston, Chicago, London, New York and Berlin blood samples were taken of the first three men and women in addition to the traditional urine samples. The results of all samples was negative.

Top ranking for the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON in running magazines

At a poll done by the RUNNERS WORLD magazine of the 10 best marathon races in the world the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON took second place behind the Flora London Marathon. The marathon in Berlin takes leading positions in the German magazines "Spiriodon", "Laufzeit" and "Running".