Negasa, Kiptanui, Masai and Abayechew will run in Frankfurt

These runners include the Ethiopian Herpasa Negasa, who became the eighth fastest athlete of all time at the Dubai Marathon in 2019, and the Kenyan Linet Masai, who was the 10,000 m world champion in 2009.

More than 25,000 participants across all competitions are expected again this year at the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon. The organizer is expecting around 12,000 participants for the marathon distance. In addition, thousands of spectators and numerous action points and bands along the route await the runners and ensure Frankfurt’s largest street festival. The race is an Elite Label Road Race of the international athletics association World Athletics. This means that the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon will once again be one of the top marathon races in the world in 2024.

“We are looking forward to another high-class race that will certainly have one or two surprises in store. After we had the fastest race in the event’s history last year, measured by the two winning times added together, we are excited to see what will be possible on October 27,” said race director Jo Schindler.

Herpasa Negasa made his breakthrough in 2019 at the high-profile Dubai Marathon: The Ethiopian improved his time to 2:03:40 hours in second place and moved into the world elite. After the corona pandemic, he achieved another top time in Seoul in 2022: Negasa ran 2:04:49 and was also second in this race. Now the 30-year-old wants to build on his best times in Frankfurt. Herpasa Negasa is training in what is probably currently the strongest marathon training group in the world under coach Gemedu Dedefo. In Addis Ababa, his training partners include Olympic champion Tamirat Tola and Boston Marathon winner Sisay Lemma.

One of Herpasa Negasa’s strongest competitors will be Eric Kiptanui. In 2018, he stormed into the top half marathon world rankings as a nobody. The 34-year-old Kenyan first won in Lisbon and then set the course record of 58:42 minutes in Berlin, which still stands today. During the Corona lockdowns, he won one of the few high-class marathon races in Siena in 2021 with 2:05:47. Despite his great potential and third place in Chicago (2021) and fifth place in Boston (2022), Eric Kiptanui was unable to match this time. After a weaker year in 2023, the Kenyan now wants to get back to his old form in Frankfurt.

For Linet Masai, the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon could be one of the last opportunities and, given the fast course, perhaps the best chance to make a breakthrough in the marathon. The 34-year-old Kenyan is the 10,000 m world champion from 2009, who had already won bronze over this distance at the Olympics a year earlier. Linet Masai was Vice World Champion in cross-country running three times in a row (2009 – 2011). In Amsterdam in 2018 she made a good marathon debut in 2:23:46 (at the time she was not wearing today’s performance-enhancing shoes). But as a result she did not really make any progress over the classic distance. In Frankfurt Linet Masai now plans to run much faster than ever before.

One of the former world champion’s strongest competitors on October 27th will be Tigist Abayechew. The 30-year-old Ethiopian surprisingly improved to a high-class 2:18:03 in Berlin two years ago, taking third place. After an injury-related break, she was able to prove her performance in March at the Tokyo Marathon, which she finished with a successful ninth place. Now Tigist Abayechew wants to run into the Festhalle in Frankfurt as the winner.