Germany’s Amanal Petros achieved the first marathon victory of his career on home soil at the ADAC Hannover Marathon on Sunday (26).
Petros broke the tape in a course record of 2:07:02 - the second fastest time of his career behind his German record of 2:06:27 - to beat the Kenyan duo of Denis Chirchir (2:07:17) and Fredrick Kibii (2:08:09).
“It was the first time that I ran a German city marathon and this victory means a lot to me. It is a huge motivation for the next races,” said Petros, who just missed out on a medal at the European Athletics Championships in Munich where he was fourth.
Petros, 27, recorded identical halfway splits of 63:31/63:31 en route to the significant milestone of his maiden marathon win.
In the women’s race, European silver medallist Matea Parlov Kostro from Croatia made it a European double with an unopposed victory, opening up a winning margin of more than one kilometre over the second half of the race.
Parlov Kostro was rewarded with a lifetime best and course record of 2:25:45 (72:34/73:11). Like Petros, this was also her first career marathon victory and her winning time was also under the Olympic qualifying standard for Paris 2024 next year.
“I am really happy with my personal best and with the qualification for the Olympic Games. Paris will be my second Olympics.
“While my biggest success was surely the silver medal at the European Championships, this was my greatest career victory today,” said Parlov Kostro, who finished third in last year’s race.
Parlov Kostro won by almost four minutes from Kenya's Pauline Thitu (2:29:25) and Mexico’s Risper Gesabwa (2:29:49).
Ringer and Dattke win German half marathon titles
European marathon champion Richard Ringer geared up for next month’s Hamburg Marathon with victory at the German Half Marathon Championships in Freiburg on Sunday (26).
In rainy and gusty conditions and on a challenging course, Ringer won in 61:44 ahead of Simon Boch (61:54) and Filmon Teklebrhan-Berhe (62:17).
“I wasn't feeling super great. That's why I'm surprised that such a good time has come out. Actually, the time is of secondary importance in a championship but I'm very happy about this great time, on the difficult track and in the conditions,” said Ringer as quoted by Leichtathletik.de.
Miriam Dattke, who finished fourth in the marathon at the 2022 European Athletics Championships but led Germany to the team title in Munich, won the women’s title in 70:47 ahead of Domenika Mayer (71:27) and Fabienne Königstein (72:00).
“Apparently Freiburg and the bad weather suit me. But I was very happy when the sun finally came out. The route is difficult to run, but I knew some of the pitfalls of the route from 2019. The atmosphere along the route was great again,” said Dattke.
At the French 10km Championships in Houilles in the outskirts of Paris on Sunday (26), Felix Bour and Fadouwa Ledhem took the domestic honours in 28:02 and 33:03 respectively.
Steven Mills for European Athletics