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Mar-3-2012
Rome Marathon Increases Prize Money Purse
by David Monti
(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
(03-Mar) -- Organizers of the Rome Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race scheduled for Sunday, March 18, have increased their prize money purse this year to ¬202,000, with ¬40,000 going to the race winners. That's nearly triple the amount awarded to the race winners compared with last year.
However, athletes will need to run fast to claim the full prizes on offer for the the top-3, race director Max Monteforte reported.
"We have increased the wining prize to ¬40,000 for the first position for men and women," Monteforte explained in an e-mail message. "To be precise, the first three positions in each category (men and women) will be required to finish in a minimum time to complete the marathon and if these times are not achieved, they will be subject to the amount won minus 30%."
The first three men and women can earn ¬40,000, 20,000 and 10,000, respectively. To receive the full first place prize, the winning man must run sub-2:07:30 (second place must run sub-2:08:30 and third place sub-2:09:00). The winning woman will receive the full ¬40,000 if she runs under 2:23:30 (sub-2:24:30 for second and sub-2:25:00 for third).
Fast times are possible in Rome, despite the fact that some of the course is paved with cobblestones. The men's course record is 2:07:17 by Kenya's Benjamin Kiptoo Koulum (2009), and the women's standard is 2:22:53 set by Russia's Galina Bogomolova in 2008. Last year's winners, Dixon Kiptolo Chumba of Kenya and Firehiwot Dado Tufa of Ethiopia, ran 2:08:45 and 2:24:13, respectively. Dado went on to win the ING New York City Marathon last November.
Monteforte also has ¬25,000 in prize money set aside for Italian citizens. Those awards are also subject to certain time standards for the first three Italians.
The Rome Marathon is Italy's largest, and one of it's most beautiful. The race both starts and finishes adjacent to the Colosseum, and last year's event had a record 12,611 finishers.
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