News29 Jul 1999


Loroupe goes for marathon best in Berlin

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Tegla Loroupe winning the 1995 New York City Marathon (© Getty Images)

Kenya's Tegla Loroupe will attempt to improve on her own world women's best time at the Berlin Marathon on September 26, race organiser Horst Milde told Reuters.

Milde said that Loroupe had signed a contract to run in the race which last year saw Brazilian Ronaldo da Costa run a men's world best of two hours six minutes and five seconds.

Loroupe ran the women's world best of 2:20:47 at the 1998 Rotterdam Marathon.

"I don't think we can expect a men's world best every year so this time the focus of attention will be on the women's race," Milde said.

Loroupe will have the incentive of a 100,000 marks ($54,590) world record bonus plus 120,000 marks ($65,500) in other victory and time bonuses.

"We don't have as much money as London or New York but her manager Volker Wagner said that the most important thing was to take the world record below 2:20 - and she'll earn more money from other races if she can achieve that."

Milde added that this year's Berlin race would be the last realistic chance for Loroupe to try to and take the women's best below the 2:20 barrier before 2001.

"Next year she's aiming for the Olympics, which is unlikely to be fast, and she will probably not run a very fast marathon in the spring," he said.

Loroupe's decision to run an autumn marathon in Berlin is a change in policy for the diminutive and popular Kenyan.

Despite being based in the German town of Detmold when she is not at home, Loroupe has for the last five years contested the New York Marathon ever since making her marathon debut there in 1994.

She won the race in 1994 and 1995 but has suffered a number of misfortunes in her last three outings there, including being misdiagnosed in 1997 with a spinal injury which initially looked to be career-threatening.

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