Kiptis settles for silver in marathon debut

In freezing conditions, Kenya's Josphat Kiptis made a perfect debut in marathon running as he clocked 2:13:47 for silver in the HAJ Hannover Marathon held on Sunday 3 April. 

The Kenyan headed to the race with a promising half marathon PB of 60.21 ran back in 2015 but had not had much in competition for the last two years, being kn the road once in that time. 

Kiptis braved the extreme conditions, running at zero Celsius to finish behind home runner Hendrik Pfeiffer who clocked 2:10.59 to win the race and take the national championships which was part of the event. Martin Olesen of Denmark took third in 2:14:35. 

A group of eight runners passed the half way mark in 65:25. That was almost exactly as planned. At around 25k Pfeiffer began to take the initiative. He broke away with Kiptis and Wilfred Kiptoo. 

Until the 30k mark they had support of pacemaker and fellow Kenyan Kiprotich Kirui. With around 12k to go Pfeiffer left behind his rivals and was then all alone at the front, building a huge lead. 

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“The atmosphere was superb. The spectators helped me getting through the race. It was a bit tough during the final twelve kilometers,“ said Pfeiffer, who ran his second fastest marathon in Hannover. 

The German has a PB of 2:10:18 from 2020. “I have reached all my goals today, which was important for me,“ Pfeiffer, who won the race and his first major German title and achieved the qualifying standards for the European and the World Championships added.

In the women’s race debutant Domenika Mayer, Rabea Schöneborn and Kenya’s Flomena Ngurais were in the leading group when the half marathon mark was passed in 1:13:36. 

By 30k pre-race favourite Schöneborn had lost around 20 seconds and soon after that Ngurais could not cope with Mayer’s pace. 

The Kenyan dropped back to fourth later when Matea Parlov Kostro overtook her around the 40k mark to finish in 2:30.42 at fourth place in the race won by Mayer.