European Athletics (EAA) – News – Super Sunday for European marathons

There is a plethora of top quality marathons across Europe on Sunday and many European runners will be hoping for fast times in them to clinch their places in teams going to the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, later this summer.

The 31st edition of the ABN AMRO Marathon of Rotterdam naturally expects to see quick performances as world records have been set at this event in the past.

Although on a different circuit to the one used today, Portugal’s Carlos Lopes followed up his 1984 Olympic Games triumph with a world record of 2:07:12 in 1985 and 26 years later he is still the fifth fastest European runner ever over the classic distance.

There is a host of Kenyan and Ethiopian runners on the start line in the Dutch city but local star Koen Raymaekers is looking for a time under 2:10 after running his best of 2:11:09 in the same race 12 months ago.

Raymaekers’ compatriot Hilda Kibet, the 2008 SPAR European Athletics Cross Country Championships gold medallist, will be looking to make another step forward in Rotterdam after finally fulfilling some of her enormous potential over the distance when she ran 2:26:23 in Frankfurt last October.

Russia’s Olga Glok and Spain’s Alessandra Aguilar, seventh in the European Athletics Championships marathon last summer, are among the other top European names.

As many as 40,000 runners could be in the 35th Paris Marathon on Sunday. Last year Ethiopian Atsede Bayisa achieved a new women's course record of 2:22:04 while the best men’s time is 2:05:47 by Kenya’s Vincent Kipruto from 2009.

In total, 19 runners in Paris have gone below 2:10 and six of them have gone below 2:08.

France’s Simon Munyutu is the fastest European in the field with a best of 2:09:24 but Russia’s Grigory Andreyev, who has a best of 2:11:00, could also go fast. An interesting debutant will be French half-marathon record holder Abdellatif Meftah.

To read an interview with Meftah talking about the Paris Marathon, click here.

In the women’s race, Europe will be represented by Ukraine’s Kateryna Stetsenko and Russia’s Margarita Plaksina, who have both gone under 2:30 in the past.

The 11th Milano City Marathon expects more than 10,000 participants with Italy’s Ruggero Pertile, fourth in the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona last summer and a winner in Torino last November, definitely guaranteed plenty of cheers along the route.

Pertile can boast of a best of 2:09:53, which was set 18 months ago at the 2009 Torino Marathon, and is looking to again improve on home asphalt.

The 10th edition of the OMV Linz Donau Marathon on Sunday will see the marathon debut of one of the top Austrian runners of the last decade, Martin Proll.

Now 30, Proll won the 2003 European Athletics U23 Championships 3000m steeplechase title, and Günther Weidlinger’s national record of 2:10:47, set in 2009, might be under threat.

Croatian record holder Lisa Stublic clocked her best time of 2:33:42 in Berlin last year and is the top women’s name in the Austrian city.

The 6th Alexander The Great Marathon in Thessaloniki, Greece, could possibly see its course records of 2:11:37 and 2:28:22 being broken, especially as good marathon running weather is being predicted.

Among the 4,500 runners will be Ukraine’s Oleksandr Kuzin, who has a best of  2:07:33 from 2007, although injuries have meant he has not raced a marathon since he clocked 2:10:54 when finishing fourth at the 2009 Venice Marathon.

The Belarus pair of Alena Vinnitskaya and Svetlana Kouhan are among the favourites for the women’s race.

The Brighton Marathon, Britain’s second biggest race after the Virgin London Marathon, has a predominantly local flavour with 2006 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Dan Robinson aiming to improve his best on Sunday.

Robinson struggled at the 2010 European Athletics Championships and could only finish 19th but he has told local media that he feels he is in the sort of shape that could lead him to improving on his best of 2:12:14 and get him selected for Daegu.