Time for personal bests and course records at the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon

With a personal best of 2:21:17, Ethiopian Yeshi Chekole leads the start list, while Elisha Rotich is the runner with the fastest personal best in the men’s field. The Kenyan won the Paris Marathon in 2021 in 2:04:21 and has held the course record there ever since. The most promising German athletes at the Frankfurt Running Festival are Olympic starter Laura Hottenrott and Tom Thurley from Potsdam.

Around 14,000 running enthusiasts from 109 nations want to enjoy the spectacular finish in the Frankfurt Festhalle after 42.195 kilometers. Late registration is still possible for the marathon competition on site. Including supporting competitions, the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon will attract more than 25,000 people this weekend.

“We are looking forward to another high-class and exciting race that can produce one or two surprises. Our goal is to improve the women’s course record. We have one of the fastest marathon courses in the world and a great finish in the Festhalle, our emotional powerhouse,” says race director Jo Schindler. The Mainova Frankfurt Marathon is one of the Elite Label Road Race events of the international athletics association World Athletics.

The men’s start list includes five athletes who have personal bests of under 2:07:00, and ten more have already run under 2:10:00. Among the women, there are five athletes in the race who have already achieved times of under 2:23:00. This means that the Frankfurt elite field is still well-staffed across the board at the top despite a few cancellations and promises interesting and fast races. Especially since the expected weather on Sunday should favor world-class times.

Elisha Rotich is one of the big favorites. The Kenyan has repeatedly achieved strong results in major marathon races over the years. The highlight was his victory at the 2021 Paris Marathon. Three years ago, he ran his personal best of 2:04:21 on the difficult course, which is still the Paris course record. At the time, he broke the course record of Ethiopia’s running legend Kenenisa Bekele.

“I prepared intensively for the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon for five months. If the weather is good and we support each other in the leading group, good times will be achieved at the end. Then results under 2:05 hours are possible,” says the Kenyan. On Sunday, Elisha Rotich will have to compete with four fast Ethiopians, among others: Lencho Tesfaye (best time: 2:06:18), Aychew Bantie (2:06:23), Abay Alemu (2:06:50) and Birhan Nebebew (2:06:52).

“It’s a compact field. Elisha Rotich is at the front, but several athletes can put him under pressure. We want to approach the race in such a way that a time of 2:04 is possible. Frankfurt is known for bringing athletes to the fore. That could be the case this time too,” says sports director Philipp Kopp. Among the challengers, he draws attention to the Ethiopian Gerba Dibaba with a best time of 2:08:25 hours: "He has also delivered strong performances over shorter distances. We can be excited.”

The Ethiopian Herpasa Negasa and the Kenyan Eric Kiptanui will not be there, having had to withdraw their commitments for Frankfurt due to injury and visa problems respectively.

Tom Thurley (Potsdam Running Club) leads the German field in Frankfurt. He improved to 2:14:52 in Hanover in the spring and was thus second in the German Championships, which were integrated into the race. Together with Jonathan Dahlke (TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen, best time 2:15:42) and Jan Lukas Becker (1. LC Sulzbach), who is making his marathon debut, an exciting three-way battle for the best German placing could emerge. The trio hopes to finish in times between 2:11 and 2:12 hours.

“My preparation went very well. I hope that it will be really fast on Sunday,” says Thurley, who is hoping for successful teamwork from the trio. “I think that the three of us German runners can work well together until kilometer 25 or 30. If we can run the first half in 66 minutes, that would be a good start. The race will only be decided at the end.” The 31-year-old’s plan for an ideal marathon Sunday: “Let the first 25 kilometers roll, then have good legs and push hard for the last few hundred meters to run into the festival hall.”