PATRICK MAKAU AWARDED AIMS WORLD’S FASTEST TIME AWARD IN RECOGNITION OF WORLD RECORD BREAKING PERFORMANCE

The world running organization the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) is delighted to announce that the Kenyan athlete Patrick Makau has been awarded the AIMS World's Fastest Time Award in recognition of his World Record breaking time of 2:03:38 set in the Berlin Marathon.

Today in Prague, Czech Republic, Makau's great achievement was given global recognition during a presentation at the Mayor's Residence, Prague. Patrick was presented with his award during an awards ceremony just one day before the Mattoni Prague Grand Prix, taking place in the city on Saturday the 8^th of September. Patrick Makau will compete in the Metro 10K Race, which is a part of Mattoni Prague Grand Prix alongside with the adidas Women's Race 5 km.

Patrick was presented with his award by City of Prague Representative Jiri Nouza, AIMS Board Member Bruno Boukobza and President of the Organizing Committee for the Prague International Marathon, Carlo Capalbo.

Makau (27) broke the World Record at the Berlin Marathon on the 25^th of September 2011. Competing against the then World Record holder Haile Gebrselassie, Patrick would win the race and in doing so, set a World Record time 21 seconds faster than the previous record. Patrick's time of 2.03.38 has been officially recognised as the world record by the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) and is also endorsed by AIMS (Association of International Marathons and Distance Races), which represents over 330 distance running events in 96 countries and territories.

AIMS have been awarding the AIMS World's Fastest Time Award to male and female athletes in recognition of World Record breaking performances since 1985. Patrick is the 18^th recipient of the AIMS World's Fastest Time Award. This is the second time that Patrick has been given an award by AIMS. His outstanding performances in 2010 were recognised with the AIMS World Athlete of the Year Award.

President of the Organizing Committee for the Prague International Marathon, Carlo Capalbo comments: "I am delighted to be able to present this award to Patrick on the occasion of the Mattoni Prague Grand Prix.  We are honoured that AIMS has chosen our event to host this prestigious ceremony."

AIMS President Paco Borao comments: "We are delighted to give Patrick this award on behalf of the 330 AIMS members in over 96 countries and territories throughout the World. Patrick is a fantastic athlete and we are pleased to recognise his great achievement with this award."

Patrick Makau comments: "I would like to thank AIMS and the IAAF for this extremely illustrious award. It is a great honour to look at the list of previous winners of this award and to see my name listed alongside them."

 AIMS proposed the World Record criteria, that the IAAF has adopted, which is:

Road World Records will be accepted by the IAAF for the following distances:

            10km;  15km;  20km;  Half Marathon;  25km;  30km;  Marathon (42.195km);

            100km;  Road Relay (Marathon distance only)

The following conditions must be met:

a)         The event must be sanctioned either by the IAAF and/or the National Federation and conducted under IAAF Rules.

b)         The athlete achieving the IAAF Road World Record must be eligible to compete under IAAF Rules.

c)         The course must be measured by an "A" or "B" IAAF/AIMS approved measurer as defined in IAAF Rule 240.3.

d)         The start and finish points on a course, measured along a straight line between them, shall not be further apart than 50% of the race distance.

e)         The decrease in elevation between the start and finish shall not exceed an average of one in a thousand, i.e. 1m per km.

f)         Either the course measurer that certified the course or another "A" or "B" measurer in possession of the complete measurement data and maps must validate that the course measured was the course run by riding in the lead vehicle.

g)         The course must be verified on site (i.e. within two weeks before, on the day of the race or as soon as practical after the race), preferably by a different IAAF/AIMS "A" or "B" measurer from the one that did the original measurement.

h)         The athlete must undergo a doping control on the date of the race.

i)          For the Road Relay, the race should be run in stages of 5km, 10km, 5km, 10km, 5km, 7.195km.

Road World Records set at intermediate distances within a race must comply with the above conditions and be timed according to IAAF Rules.  The intermediate distances must have been measured and marked during the course measurement.

It is recommended that Member Federations adopt the Rules of the IAAF for the conduct of their own athletic competitions.

Peter McLean