Our website is a kind of marathon guide telling about the marathon sports, its main features, giving tips and reviews on the best marathons. Today we’ll speak about Berlin Marathon.
Berlin Maraton is one of the most prestigious marathon races in the world which is one of the five World Marathon Majors. The marathon is traditionally held in Berlin (Germany) on the last Saturday and Sunday of September. [sc name="article ad"]The organizers of the marathon are SCC Berlin sports club and LLC SCC-RUNNING Events. Saturday is a day of roller skates and children’s marathon (4.2195 km). The main discipline (marathon for running, walking and riding on a wheelchair) takes place on Sunday.
Along with London, New York and Chicago Marathons, Berlin Marathon is one of the most popular in the world (60 000 applications with about 40 000 runners), and according to the average first 10 runners time it is the fastest marathon in the world. In 2008 the Berlin Marathon winner – Ethiopian runner called Haile Gebreselassie set a world record for men: 2:03:59 . Berlin Marathon was invented in 1964 and was attended by 700 people. The organizers were Horst mildew comrades, inspired by the races in the French city of Le Mans. 10 years later, in 1974, the first official Berlin Marathon was held. In 1977, the marathon has been merged with the competitions taking place in the Championship in Germany. During the race the Germany athlete Krista Valenzik set an unofficial record – 2:34:47,5. In 1981 Berlin marathon taking place along the suburbs and countryside of Berlin was developed to the city.
After resolving bureaucratic and political problems a new marathon start was the lawn in front of the Reichstag with the distance passing Charlie Checkpoint and finishing on the Kurfurstendamm. This year the marathon was attended by 3486 people thanks to a new distance along the paved roads that made it possible for the weheel chair athletes to participate in the race. As the number of participants was huge in 1987, the start point was moved to the June 17 street. Since 1994 the time measurement is made with an electronic ChampionChip transponder.
As for the Berlin marathon recordsmen one can’t but mention Haile Gebreselassie from Ethiopia (2:03:59 in the men distance in 2008), Mizuki Noguchi from Japan (2:19:12 in the women distance in 2005).
In the year 2009 Berlin marathon got nearly 41000 requests from 122 countries while almost 35000 took part in the marathon. Among them there were 28000 men, 7000 women and 9300 children taking part in the children mini-marathon. Over 7000 participants were roller skaters. But these sums are nothing in comparison to 1 mln audience. Just sum all these numbers and get the total number of people interested in this magnificent kind of sports.
