RUNNING GERMANY – BERLIN-MARATHON – Hopes rest on Fitschen and Hahner in Berlin – European Athletics (EAA) News

The 39th Berlin marathon gets under way on Sunday morning September 30 and while all the talk is of Kenyans, world records and 41,000 participants, there are two Germans whose hopes are pitched at qualifying for next year's world championships.

Former European 10,000m champion, Jan Fitschen, is looking at least at improving on his personal best of 2:15.40 from Frankfurt last year. If all goes to plan he might even get below the magical qualifying mark of 2:14 for Moscow. After his run in Dusseldorf in May where he had to pull out after 25km, Fitschen knows all too well just how tricky the distance can be: "It was hard in Duesseldorf," recalls Fitschen. "But the marathon is my thing now. I am not happy with my lifetime best so clearly I need to do better. On Sunday I want to take the next step."

The injury he picked up in Duesseldorf meant he had to take two weeks off and then build up gently, but after evaluating what went wrong he has adjusted his training: "I was extremely frustrated, but I started with gentle 20min jogs and then started to increase the distance and tempo. There were two training camps at altitude in St Moritz and for the final eight weeks up to the middle of September I was averaging over 200km a week, not a lot for a professional but still good."

His only significant race since the injury occurred was a half marathon in 65:36 in Klagenfurt, just 17sec outside his best from 2010. Camp followers are tipping a time between 2:12 and 2:14.

On the women's side, Duesseldorf was a much better experience for newcomer, Anna Hahner who debuted with a fine 2:30:14, but it was also a time tinged with disappointment because it meant that she missed the qualification mark for the London Olympics by 14sec. At the age of 22 much is now expected of Hahner and her sights are firmly set on qualifying for Moscow: "I am happy I can run in Berlin," she said. "It was always my goal to come and run here one day."

That goal first saw the light of day three years ago when Hahner was in the crowd that watched the world championships marathon in Berlin: "I was standing by the Brandenburg Gate and got goose-pimples. It was then that I thought I would like to run here, but I never thought for one minute that three years later it would be possible."

Everyone is impressed by her youth, but Hahner does not go along with that opinion: "Internationally, I am not that young. There are lots of young Kenyan and Ethiopian runners who have run very fast at my age." Having trained in Kenya, Hahner has seen them at first hand: "I met Mary Keitany and other world class runners and it was very motivating for me."

Hahner started running with her twin sister, Lisa, at the relatively late age of 17 after she attended a motivation seminar. After a gentle three days a week running, they both started to increase their runs until they finally met marathon coach, Wolfgang Heinig, coach to 1988 Olympic bronze medallist Katrin Doerre-Heinig, a double winner in Berlin.

"We are aiming to get under 2:30," says her manager, Tomas Dold. The DLV has set the world championships qualification at 2:29. Berlin will be a big day for Hahner and Fitschen.

European Athletics (EAA) News