Posted: March 27, 2006

Athletics: Press Conference Highlights 26. Vattenfall BERLINER HALBMARATHON

Rüdiger Otto (Managing Director of SCC-RUNNING)
"The number of participants of the Vattenfall BERLIN HALF MARATHON will increase once more. We expect about 20,000 participants – in 1998 we had 3,500. This year we don’t celebrate a jubilee, but 25 years ago the history of the Vattenfall BERLIN HALFMARATHON started."

Mark Milde (Race-Director)
"We’ve got 18,893 entries from 67 nations so far and we are more than happy with it. It will be once more a real festival. Most entries at the Vattenfall BERLIN HALF MARATHON come from the runners of the half marathon distance – a total of 15,937. The number of female runners increased again. 30 per cent of our participants are female runners who will run on the various distances on Sunday. Despite many construction sites in Berlin we were able to maintain our start and finish areas. Furthermore the course will be leading through the Potsdam Square. One reason for our top runner from the USA, Deena Kastor, to run in Berlin is that we have additional official timekeepers at different points on the course. So we are able to get official records. She will try to break the 10 miles US record as well as the 20 k US record. So it might be that we will have three US records in total on Sunday.“

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