European Athletics (EAA) – Andersson improves her own Swedish marathon record in Dubai

Isabellah Andersson reduced her own Swedish marathon record to 2.23.41 when she finished third at the Dubai Marathon on Friday.

“This was obviously my best race ever,” said the 30-year-old distance runner, who picked up a cheque for $50,000.

“I followed my plan and did not care about where I was going to finish at the start of the race, but concentrated on keeping at my own pace,” she added.

Andersson ran cautiously at first, not getting carried away by some quick early kilometres by the leaders, and was 12th at the halfway point in 1:12.05 but then ran the second half of the race almost half a minute faster.

She becomes the fastest European marathon runner of 2011, albeit at a very early stage in the year, but only two other Europeans – the Russian pair of Lilya Shobukhova and Inga Abitova – ran quicker than her last year.

It was her third Swedish record over the classic distance in the last 12 months, having run 2:26:52 at the same race 364 days ago last January and then 2:25:10 at the Commezbank Frankfurt Marathon in October.

Her Dubai outing was also her fifth marathon in a busy 12 months, which also included winning the Stockholm Marathon in June and then finishing fifth at the 2010 European Athletics Championships less than two months later.

Ethiopia’s 2009 World Championships bronze medallist Aselefech Mergia was the winner in Dubai in 2:22.45.

European Athletics (EAA)