Posted: October 18, 2007

Athletics: 9th Morgenpost Dresden-Marathon on Sunday

Shvetsov and Kenyans chase course record Russia’s national record holder Leonid Shvetsov will lead the chase for the course record in Sunday’s 9th edition of the Morgenpost Dresden-Marathon. He is by far the fastest runner in the field with a personal best of 2:09:16. Shvetsov had achieved a notable 13th place in the 2004 Olympic marathon in Athens and a year earlier had placed second in the Frankfurt Marathon. Adding all running events on Sunday about 7,500 athletes are expected to take part in the Morgenpost Dresden Marathon. Among them is the defending champion Joseph Talam. The Kenyan had clocked the course record of 2:15:26 in 2006. The strongest field signed so far for the race in Dresden will see more Kenyans in with a chance. Emmanuel Lagat and Josphat Rotich have personal bests of sub 2:17 while debutants Edwin Yano, Dominic Ondimu Nyabuto and Joel Kipchumba Jerutich could be in with a surprise. Nyabuto and Jerutich are coached by German Dieter Hogen who works with a number of Kenyan world-class marathon runners. Hogen had formerly been the coach of Uta Pippig, who won the marathons of Boston, Berlin and New York. The women’s race on Sunday will probably see a duel between Remalda Kergyte (Lithuania) and Kateryna Karmanenko (Ukraine). Kergyte had won the Dresden Half Marathon two years ago and then returned in 2006 to take second in the marathon. At an age of only 22 years she has improved her personal best to 2:49:27 this year. It is her aim to further improve this time on Sunday. Kateryna Karmanenko is even one year younger than Remalda Kergyte. And the Ukrainian has been faster as well. Her personal best stands at 2:46:33 so far. Further information is available online at: www.dresden-marathon.de. Leonid Shvetsov at the Frankfurt Marathon in 2003, Photo: www.photorun.net Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest