FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

               18 Men with PBs of Sub 2:10 in Sunday's Race,
              Tune and Dibaba to Attack Women's Course Record

The amazing development of recent years seems set to continue in Sunday's 
Commerzbank Frankfurt Marathon. With 18 men featuring personal bests of sub 
2:10 and eight of them having run faster than 2:07:15 last year's 
world-class course record from Gilbert Kirwa (Kenya/2:06:14) will be 
targeted. If weather conditions are fine the Commerzbank Frankfurt Marathon 
could well see its first sub 2:06 time. The event is an IAAF Gold Label 
Road Race.

Somehow it is an irony that so many runners feature such personal bests, 
since it is not that long ago that the race eagerly waited for the first 
sub 2:10 performance. It was not before 2003 and the introduction of 
Christoph Kopp as the elite athletes' coordinator that such a time was 
finally achieved. But since then the men's winner has always run sub 2:10. 
Such is the extraordinary development that if a winner should run a 2:08 in 
good conditions on Sunday it would go down as quite a disappointment. If 
you take the 15 fastest men's times ever run in Frankfurt none of these is 
older than five years. And the average of the ten fastest times ever run 
has already come down to 2:07:39.6 hours.

While organisers had released names of the men's elite field earlier the 
women runners have now been announced. In contrast to the men the women did 
not quite live up to expectations in the past few years. This is why a much 
stronger field has been signed for Sunday. The aim is to finally break the 
five year-old course record set by Russia's Alevtina Biktimirova (2:25:12). 
Five runners have been entered with personal bests of sub 2:26. Among them 
are Ethiopians Dire Tune and Mare Dibaba. Tune has a personal best of 
2:24:40 and was the winner of the Boston Marathon in 2008. Just recently 
she won the silver medal in the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. 
Dibaba ran a great marathon debut in Rome, where she finished third with 
2:25:38 in March this year. Earlier she had improved Tune's national half 
marathon record to 67:13 minutes. Two Kenyans – defending champion Agnes 
Kiprop (PB: 2:26:22) and Caroline Kilel (2:25:24) – plus Hilda 
Kibet (Netherlands/2:30:33) could do very well as well.

Meanwhile European champion Zivile Balciunaite (Lithuania) had to 
withdraw due to illness and former world record holder and world champion 
Catherine Ndereba (Kenya) can not run because of a foot injury.

Main contenders of the Commerzbank Frankfurt Marathon are listed below:

MEN


BIB
NAME
GIVEN NAME
NAT
PB
RESULTS 
2
Arusei
Moses
KEN
2:06:50
2009: 1. Seoul Marathon (2:07:54)

2008: 2. Paris Marathon (2:06:50)

2006: 2. Frankfurt Marathon (2:10:30)

3
Teimet
Sylvester
KEN
2:06:49
2010: 1. Seoul Marathon (2:06:49)

2009: 5. Chunchon Marathon (2:11:24)

2009: 3. Seoul Marathon (2:10:11)

2008: 1. Gyeongju Marathon (2:09:53)

2008: 1. Göteborg Halfmarathon (1:01:21)

4
Keitany
Elijah
KEN
2:06:41
2009: 2. Amsterdam Marathon (2:06:41)

2008: 3. Berlin Halfmarathon (1:00:10)

5
Mandago
David
KEN
2:06:53
2009:2. Seoul  Marathon (2:09:01)

2009: 6. Paris Marathon (2:06:53)

6
Kiprop
Francis
KEN
2:07:04
2009: 2. Berlin Marathon (2:07:04)

2008: 4. seoul Marathon (2:08:30)

2007: 11. Amsterdam Marathon (2:09:49)

7
Tola
Tadesse
ETH
2:06:41
2010: 1. Paris Marathon (2:06:41)

2010: 2. RAK Halfmarathon (59:49)

8
Kipsang
Wilson
KEN
2:07:10
2010: 3. Paris Marathon (2:07:10)

2010: 4. Abu Dhabi Halfmarathon (1:00:04)

2009: 4. WC-Halfmarathon (1:00:08)

2009: 2. Ras Al Khaimah Halfmarathon (58:59)

2009: 2. Valencia Halfmarathon (59:33)

9
Kigen
Wilson
KEN
2:08:16
2010: 3. Hamburg Halfmarathon (1:07:30)

2008: 2. Frankfurt Marathon (2:08:16)

2006: 4. Seoul Marathon (2:09:47)

10
Kigen
Wilfred
KEN
2:07:33
2010: 1. Hamburg Marathon (2:09:22)

2008: 2. Hamburg Marathon (2:07:48)

2007: 1. Frankfurt Marathon (2:07:58)

2007: 2. Hamburg Marathon (2:07:33)

2006: 1. Frankfurt Marathon (2:09:06)

2005: 1. Frankfurt Marathon (2:08:29)

11
Rotich
James
KEN
2:07:12
2009: 7. Eindhoven Marathon (2:09:33)
 
2007: 3. Amsterdam Marathon (2:07:12)

12
Chelimo
Elias
KEN
2:08:15
2010: 8. Rotterdam Marathon (2:10:29)

2009: 4. Frankfurt Marathon (2:08:15)

2008: 2. Milano Marathon (2:08:39)

14
Sanga
Philip
KEN
2:08:07
2010: 5. Daegu Marathon (2:12:52)

2009: 2. Eindhoven Marathon (2:08:07)

2009: 5. Rome Marathon (2:10:09)

15
Asmerom
Yared
ERI
2:08:34
2010: 5. Seoul Marathon (2:11:46)

2009: 3. Lake Biwa Marathon (2:10:49)

2008: 2. Lake Biwa Marathon (2:08:34)

2008: 8. OG-Marathon (2:11:11)

2007: 4. WC-Marathon (2:17:41)

16
Bungei
Samson
KEN
2:08:36
2010: 4. Hannover Marathon (2:09:58)

2009: 2. Cologne Marathon (2:08:36)

2009: 1. Dortmund Marathon (2:09:23)

17
Sugut
Henry
KEN
2:08:40
2010: 1. Vienna Marathon (2:08:40)

19
Kutto
Edwin
KEN
2:09:50
2010: 3. Hannover Marathon (2:09:50)

2009: 4. Cologne Marathon (2:11:55)

20
Kiprono
Isaac
KEN
2:09:59
2004: 2. Padova Marathon (2:10:46)

2001: 5. Rotterdam Marathon
32
Kipkemboi
Laban
KEN
2:08:38
2009: 3. Los Angeles Marathon (2:10:29)

2008: 6. Hamburg Marathon (2:09:46)
 
2007: 3. Seoul Marathon (2:08:38)




WOMEN
 

F01
Kiprop
Agnes
KEN
2:26:22
2010: 11. Boston marathon (2:33:21)

2009: 1. Frankfurt Marathon (2:26:57)

2009: 1. Turin Marathon (2:26:22)

F02
Tune
Dire
ETH
2:24:40
2010: 3. Worlds Best 10 km San Juan

2009: 2. Boston Marathon (2:32:17)

2008: 1. Boston Marathon (2:25:25)

2008. 15. Olympic Games Marathon

2008: 1. Houston Marathon (2:24:40)

F03
Kilel
Caroline
KEN
2:25:24
2010: 3. Seoul Marathon (2:26:58)

2009: 1. Ljubljana Marathon (2:25:24)

F05
Egigayehu
Asnakech
ETH
2:25:50
2010: 1. Milano Marathon (2:25:50)

2009: 3. Rock "n" Roll Marathon Arizona (2:33:32)

2008: 5. Amsterdam Marathon (2:34:31)

F06
Kimutai
Hellen
KEN
2:25:52
2010: 1. Vienna Marathon (2:31:08)

2009: 2. Frankfurt Marathon (2:27:50)

2007: 2. Roma Marathon (2:26:46)

2003: 1. hamburg Marathon (2:25:52)

F07
Dibaba
Mare
ETH
2:25:38
2010: 3. Rom Marathon (2:25:38) debut
  
2010: 2. Ras Al Khaimah Halfmarathon (1:07:13)

F08
Andersson
Isabellah
SWE
2:26:52
2010: 5. EC-Marathon (2:34:43)

2010: 5. Dubai Marathon (2:26:52)

F09
Volgina
Natalia
RUS
2:27:32
2010: 1. Düsseldorf Marathon (2:30:47)
 
2009: 6. Toronto Marathon (2:35:50)

2007: 5. Rom Marathon (2:30:31)

2006: 2. Paris Marathon (2:27:32)

F10
Kibet
Hilda
NED
2:30:33
2009: 3. Amsterdam Mararthon

2009: 6. WC-Cross Amman

2008: 5. WC-Cross

2008: 1. EC-Cross

2007: 6. Amsterdam Marathon

F11
Kalovics
Aniko
HUN
2:29:04
2008: 1. Venedig Marathon (2:31:24)

2008: 3. Roma Marathon (2:29:04)

2007: 1 Torino Marathon (2:29:24)