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For the first time, more than 10,000 runners are expected at the start
A strong field awaits the AVON RUNNING 20th Berlin Women’s Run
2003-05-22
Several strong German athletes will be taking to the start in the 20th AVON RUNNING Berlin Women’s Run. With support from adidas, Sonja Oberem (LG Bayer Leverkusen), who took third place in the marathon at the European Championships in Munich, will start her athletic comeback after being out for injuries. The former world champion in the triathlon has become a consistently successful marathon runner. (Development at the world championships: 1995: 8th place; 1997: 7th place; 1999: 6th place, 2001: 5th place). After running the marathon several times in Berlin, winning the half marathon, and also participating in the City Night Race, this will be her first start at the AVON RUNNING Women’s Run. Maybe the only woman in Germany who has demonstrated even more consistency and has more experience over the marathon distance is Kathrin Dörre-Heinig (LAC Veltins Hochsauerland), who is in her 3rd decade as a top athlete and who always enjoys coming back to Berlin. With 24 marathon victories in 43 races (including Osaka, London, Berlin) and great results at the Olympics (1988: 3rd place; 1992: 5th place; 1996: 4th place), she is the "Grande Dame" of the marathon. During this long career she was also able to win the Berlin Women’s Run in 1992. Inexhaustible, Kathrin Dörre-Heinig wants to run another season and test her limits as a 42 year old. Also coming from Leverkusen is Melanie Kraus, European Cup winner in 2002 in team marathon. She has fond memories of Berlin after clocking the fasted marathon debut in Germany in 2:27:58.The field of the top runners is rounded out by the AVON RUNNING regular and „reigning champion“ Katrin Weßel (SCC Berlin), who will be using the 10km distance, over which she has already won the German Championships 10 times, as a final exercise in speed for the Regensburg Marathon. She won the AVON Women’s Run in 2000 and 2002.
For the first time, the start and finish will both be on the boulevard Straße des 17. Juni, where it began in 1984. The traditional area on John-Foster-Dulles-Allee has become too small.
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