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Surprise Winners in real,- BERLIN MARATHON for Inline Skaters
Roger Schneider and Cecilia Baena faster than the favourites
2004-09-25
Runners in Sunday’s real,- BERLIN MARATHON can only marvel at the time returned by the inline skaters over the 42.195 kilometre course Saturday morning. Roger Schneider of Switzerland didn’t get close to the ‘inline’ record of 61min 08sec, set by his French team mate, Tristan Loy five years ago.But Schneider’s winning time of 64min 43sec was still over an hour faster than the running world record of 2hr 04min 55sec, set by Kenyan star, Paul Tergat in Berlin last year.
Rarely, for such a flat course, Schneider got well clear of his pursuers at 36 kilometres, and won by 17 seconds from two Italians, Luca Saggiarato and Massimiliano Presti, who shared the same time, 65 mins exactly. Schneider added the Berlin victory to his European title earlier this year.
The women’s race was a much closer affair. World junior champion, Cecilia Baena of Colombia – where inline is one of the leading sports – was winner in 77.10. Baena, still only 17, was a fraction ahead of last year’s winner, Julie Glass of the USA, who returned the same time, and Laura Lardini of Italy, who was a second behind.
It was a rare visit to Europe for Baena, and her biggest worry was the rain at the start. “It was the first time I’ve skated in the wet, and I was quite worried. Fortunately, it cleared up”. Both Baena and Schneider earned 5,000 euros for their victories.
Despite the earlier start time of 10am, the eighth year of the inline section of the real,-Berlin Marathon attracted a record 8190 entries, the biggest ‘inline’ marathon in the world. Roughly 200,000 spectators lined the streets of Berlin. Sundays marathon is also expecting a record turnout of over 35,000 runners.
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