Several athletes will be taking in the Hamburg Marathon on Sunday, April 28th in a last-minute attempt to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Ethiopia’s Gotytom Gebreslase is likely the fastest in the world who has yet to quality. Also seeking Paris standard are Canada’s Natasha Wodak, Leslie Sexton, Dayna Pidhoresky and Ben Preiser. Fellow Canadian Thomas Broatch will be running the Copenhagen Marathon on May 5th — a literal 11th-hour attempt.
Gotytom Gebreslase
Gebreslase, the 2022 Eugene World Champion, has been added to the strong elite field of Sunday’s HASPA Marathon Hamburg. The Ethiopian was runner-up at last year’s global championships in Budapest and has a personal best of 2:18:11. With this time she is the fastest woman ever entered into the HASPA Marathon Hamburg. In the men’s race, Bernard Koech returns to Hamburg as the defending champion. The Kenyan broke the course record last year with 2:04:09.
“We have made a really strong development in recent years. In the past two editions, there were three course records and world-class times. Now we have assembled another great field and it is quite possible that the course records come under threat once again,“ said the chief organizer of Germany’s biggest spring marathon, Frank Thaleiser.
Gebreslase, who won her marathon debut in Berlin in 2021, hopes to still qualify for the Olympic Games. However because of the extraordinarily strong competition for the three places she would probably have to smash the course record of 2:17:23 set by fellow Ethiopian Yalemzerf Yehualaw two years ago. Nine Ethiopian women have run sub 2:17:00 during the qualifying period, which was supposed to end on April 30th but has now been extended by World Athletics to May 5th.
Getaneh Molla heads an impressive men’s start list on which seven athletes have personal bests faster than 2:05:00. The Ethiopian ran his PB of 2:03:34 when winning an impressive marathon debut in Dubai in 2019. However, he could not produce such a strong time again since then. In contrast, course record holder Bernard Koech has already run sub 2:05 on three occasions. While fellow Kenyan Samwel Mailu had to cancel his start because of an injury, a debutant could be in for a surprise: Former Kenyan Abraham Cheroben, who competes for Bahrain, has a world-class half marathon PB of 58:40.
Organizers expect to register a total of more than 35,000 runners for the 38th edition of the Haspa Marathon Hamburg. Over 14,000 of them are marathon runners.
The Canadians
Natasha Wodak is a two-time Olympian having competed in the 10,000m event at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. At the Tokyo Olympics, she placed a strong 13th. For Wodak’s move up to the marathon she quickly established her national dominance by running well under two hours and 30 minutes. She holds the current national record at 2:23:12 and is the former national 10,000m and half-marathon record holder at 31:41.59 and 1:09:41, respectively. The North Vancouverite also holds the national 8km best-known time at 25:28.
Sexton has run as fast as 2:28:04. Like Wodak she came to the marathon after a long athletics career. In March, Sexton competed in the 2024 World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade. In January, she just about matched her marathon best with a 2:28:14 performance in Houston, TX. On Sunday, April 21, Sexton finished second in the Vancouver Sun Run in the time of 32:25 an event she has twice won.
The third Vancouver-based athlete, Pidhoresky, won the Canadian Tokyo Olympic Trials in Toronto before the pandemic and was automatically selected to the team to run in Sapporo, Japan. Unfortunately, due to someone else on her flight arriving with COVID, she had to sequester in a hotel room for her entire stay in Japan, except for the race. The de-training and 34C heat got to her. She is seeking another opportunity to compete in a global championship under more typical conditions.
Ben Preisner ran 2:10:17 in his debut marathon in the Marathon Project 2020 in Chandler, Arizona. At the time, the performance was a minute faster than the Olympic standard of 2:11:30, now the standard is 2:08:10. He competed in Tokyo for Canada. In February 2024, Preisner improved his personal best to 2:08:58. The Oakville, ON native needs to take 49 seconds off of his Oita, Japan performance and be ranked in the top 80 globally, to make the team.
Sunday’s attempt by the four Canadian make the Hamburg Marathon the defacto Canadian Paris Olympic Trials.
Jake Robertson
It has been a while for Jake Roberton of New Zealand. It was in 2018 when he ran his personal best of 2:08:26 in Otsu, Japan. His most recent performance of note was 13 months ago when he clocked a 1:00:05 half-marathon finish in Lisbon, which is on par with his marathon best. For Robertson, the past year has had its distractions. His twin brother Zane was banned for doping and was arrested over allegations of sexual assault and possession of an unlicensed AK-47 assault rifle and ammunition at his home in Kenya.
An unfortunate implication for Jake is that Zane’s personal bests are almost identical having run a marathon on the Gold Coast in Australia in the time of 2:08:19 in 2019. Zane has run the half marathon in 59:47 and his 10,000m best is 27:33.67, while Jake’s is 27:30.90. Zane maintains that he doped in the latter stages of his career only, to keep up with the competition. But if this is untrue, then the twins’ near identical bests suggest both could have doped. Jake may be innocent, but the noise around his brother’s troubles is surely a distraction.
Defying age
Canada’s Malindi Elmore is running as well as ever at the age of 44. She is already named to the marathon team along with Cameron Levins (2:05:36) and Rory Linkletter (2:08:01). In Berlin in 2023, she ran 2:23:30, which is the second fastest Canadian performance of all time. Wodak, at age 42, holds the current record of 2:23:12, which she set in Berlin the year prior. Wodak attempted the standard of 2:26:50 in Houston in January but came up a little short with a 2:28:42 performance.
Also 42 is Jessica Augusto of Portugal who will attempt the Olympic standard on the streets of Hamburg. She finished seventh at the 2012 London Olympics clocking a 2:25:11. Her best is 2:24:25 from the 2014 London Marathon. Augusto was a cross-country running phenom for Portugal winning or hitting the podium in many cross-country championships including twice winning the Europeans.
Intriguing debuts
Irine Cheptai of Kenya ran the half marathon as fast as 1:04:53. She accomplished the performance, which is 15th fastest in history, in October in Valencia. The 32-year-old could challenge for the win, as debut marathons seem to be less daunting to athletes of recent history, perhaps coinciding with the advent of super shoes.
Bahraini Abraham Cheroben ran the half-marathon in the time of 58:40. This is the 20th-fastest performance of all time. Like Cheptai, he could surprise and compete with Getaneh Molla, Bernard Koech and Roland Korir for the win. He was born in Kenya and the organizers have listed him as Kenyan, however, he will represent Bahrain in Hamburg — he stands a much better chance of making the Olympic team of Bahrain than Kenya.
Elite runners with personal bests
MEN:
Getaneh Molla ETH 2:03:34
Bernard Koech KEN 2:04:09
Roland Korir KEN 2:04:22
Dickson Chumba KEN 2:04:32
Barselius Kipyego KEN 2:04:48
Brimin Misoi KEN 2:04:53
Philemon Kiplimo KEN 2:04:56
Oqbe Ruesom ERI 2:05:51
Haymanot Alew ETH 2:05:57
Tsedat Ayana ETH 2:06:18
Geoffrey Kirui KEN 2:06:27
Olivier Irabaruta BDI 2:07:13
Jake Robertson NZL 2:08:26
Amaury Paquet BEL 2:08:44
Martin Musau UGA 2:08:45
Benjamin Preisner CAN 2:08:58
Abraham Cheroben KEN Debut
WOMEN:
Gotytom Gebreslase ETH 2:18:18
Winfridah Moseti KEN 2:20:55
Sharon Chelimo KEN 2:22:07
Kidsan Alema ETH 2:22:28
Natasha Wodak CAN 2:23:12
Margaret Wangari KEN 2:23:52
Jessica Augusto POR 2:24:25
Ayantu Kumela ETH 2:24:29
Jackline Cherono KEN 2:24:43
Carla Salome Rocha POR 2:24:47
Katharina Steinruck GER 2:24:56
Fadouwa Ledhem FRA 2:25:50
Leslie Sexton CAN 2:28:14
Dayna Pidhoresky 2:29:03
Irine Cheptai KEN Debut
Aminet Ahmed ETH Debut
