European Athletics (EA) – News – Abeylegesse on road to her marathon debut

Elvan Abeylegesse is ready to take the longest challenge of her competitive career by making her marathon debut – and she has chosen to do it at home.

Turkey's Abeylegesse, 31, the 2010 double European Athletics Championships, will run in the 35th Eurasia Vodafone Marathon in Istanbul on 17 November.

It is a big weekend in the Turkish city with 4,000 athletes running the marathon and a total of 17,000 participants competing throughout the day which also includes 10km and 15km races.

Very much back in the swing of the sport after giving birth to her daughter Arsema in July 2011, Abeylegesse is ready to take on the 26.2 miles.

As she was returning from her maternity break in 2012, Abeylegesse finished second in the 15km event in Istanbul.

There is no question about her ability to perform on the road. In February 2010, six months before her 5000m and 10,000m glory at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona, she made history when she won the Ras Al Khaimah Half-Marathon in the United Arab Emirates.

Her victory in 1:07:07 was the fastest ever by a woman on their debut and broke the Turkish record.

It remains the fourth fastest ever by a European and the target now is to see how she will cope over the full length of a marathon.

This year she once more demonstrated her abilities on both the road and the track when she won the Nice Half-Marathon with a time of 1:10:32 in April and then took 10,000m silver at the Mediterranean Games in front of her home crowd in Mersin in June.

She has already established herself as one of the most consistent track athletes in the world.

At the Bislett Games in 2004, she broke the 5000m world record with a time of 14:24.68 becoming the first Turkish athlete to set a world record.

She won bronze over that same distance at the European Athletics Championships in Göteborg in 2006 before placing second at the IAAF World Championships in Osaka a year later.

At the Olympics in Beijing, she won silver in the 5000m and 10,000m, two brilliant achievements before her golden double in Barcelona.

At her age, converting to the marathon could open up a new chapter in Abeylegesse’s career.

If all goes to plan on 17 November, this event will have served as her preparation for next summer's European Athletics Championships in Zurich.

 European Athletics (EA) – News