Press conference quotes of the Dresdner Kleinwort Frankfurt Marathon – More information about the race on Sunday at: www.frankfurt-marathon.com

Ben Maiyo, Kenya:
I am looking forward to the race on Sunday. I will see what the pace makers are doing. In spring I had a hamstring injury which is why the Marathon in Rotterdam wasn’t that good. I had treatment in Colorado (USA) and trained there as well as in Kenya – both at altitude.

I have trained very well and am in good shape. It depends on my preparation how hard a Marathon is at the end. In Los Angeles (2005) I was beaten (into second place) over the last few metres because I didn’t look round. I learned from that.  

Benson Barus, Kenya:
I am happy to be here in Frankfurt. The field is very strong so I can’t say if I am going to win. But I will give my best. I want to tap my full potential and beat my personal record of 2:08:34. I am better after suffering a bout of Malaria but not as strong as before the attack. I had to reduce the training a little during treatment. I continued training throughout that time. On Sunday I am running my own race. I try to run around 64 minutes for the first half. The last kilometres are hard at every Marathon – it doesn’t matter how fast you run. For the first time I’m in a marathon where the finish is in an arena (Frankfurt’s Festhalle). I will see how that goes.  

André Pollmächer, Germany, Marathon debut:
I am fairly relaxed at the moment; I guess I’ll start getting excited on Sunday. I’m in good form. Although I was injured for a quite a while, I made the best of my recovery. I ran a great time at the ASICS Grand 10 in Berlin but that is a quarter of the distance (of a marathon). My longest training runs where 40 k. I won’t be going out too fast as I’ll be trying to have a strong second half. 67 minutes for the first half will be my goal. I hope to finish in a time of around 2:15 hours. I’ll only know at 35 kilometres if 2:13 is possible or not.

Melanie Kraus, Defending champion of the Dresdner Kleinwort Frankfurt Marathon:
I am very relaxed. I am looking forward to Sunday, because my bib number shows F1 (defending champion) and that is a great honour for an athlete. On one hand it is a burden as the expectations are high. On the other hand, I am happy when I look at the bib number as last year’s race was very good and nice. Despite (running in) Beijing I’ve had two more weeks recovery this year compared to last. The most I ran in training in any week to prepare for this race was 225 kilometres.

Sabrina Mockenhaupt, Germany:
I am super excited. It is only my second marathon ever. At my marathon debut in Cologne (last year) I really kind of died. The half marathon in Cologne a couple of weeks ago (winner in 68:51 minutes) as well as the diagnostic tests I had afterwards point to everything being on course. I’m running really well and I think that I will go out faster than Melanie Kraus. I’ll have a pace maker with me but shall have to watch out that Melanie doesn’t overtake me at the end. I have trained up to 180 kilometres a week. But a half-marathon is not a marathon. It is 21,0975 km more, hence a half is something totally different. If I would run a 2:26 or 2:27, it would be awesome. I want to reach halfway in 73 minutes.   

Jo Schindler, Race Director, Dresdner Kleinwort Frankfurt Marathon:
We are very pleased with the numbers of participants this year.  We have a record number of participants. Before today 18,689 runners had registered. If the late registration figures are as high as last year (1,500 late entries on Saturday), we could break the 20,000 barrier.

For a time sub 2:07 time in the men’s race and 2:22:30 in the women’s, we are offering the best price money in Germany. We’ll pay the winner 15,000 Euro plus a maximum of 75,000 Euro as time bonus. The course record will bring an additional 5,000 Euro.  

Christoph Kopp, Eilte athletes‘ Coordinator, Dresdner Kleinwort Frankfurt Marathon:
Our Ideal would be a finishing time of 2:06:59 hours, but it depends on the weather as well. The intended split at half-way should be between 63:30 to 63:40. Like last year, we didn’t rely on bringing in just one top athlete. We put in a lot of work to put together a good field here in Frankfurt. The high level of prize money was crucial, of course, in attracting the athletes. In fact, we couldn’t invite all the athletes who wanted to run here.   
 
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