FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
40th edition of the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon on Sunday:
Matea Parlov Kostro: How she became a Croatian Sports Star
The German roads are much to Matea Parlov Kostro's liking. Within little
more than six months she has celebrated both the biggest success of her
career to date and her greatest win. In August 2022 she won the silver
medal at the European Championships in Munich which turned her at a stroke
into a Croatian Sports Star. This was the first medal won by a Croatan
woman in a running event in almost a century of the European Championships.
Then in May this year she enjoyed her biggest victory so far. The athlete
from Zagreb won the Hanover Marathon, breaking both the course record and
her personal best with 2:25:45. This performance placed the 31-year-old
firmly among the very best of the European marathon running elite. Now she
will run Sunday's Mainova Frankfurt Marathon.
"I decided to run the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon because it's a fast race
with a high-quality field. I always feel good when I run in Germany, that
was another factor in Frankfurt's favour. Another reason was that I am so
looking forward to the spectacular run to the finish line in the
Festhalle," explained Matea Parlov Kostro before Sunday's Mainova Frankfurt
Marathon. "My form is better than ever, the performances in training are
better than before the European Championships. I have had a slight cold but
feel good now."
"I'm happy that I no longer have to worry about making the Olympic
qualifying time, I've made sure of my ticket to Paris. But I want to run a
personal best so, of course, there's always some form of pressure to
perform."
Her first sport wasn't running but handball. "Then one day a sports teacher
asked if I wanted to run a 600m race on the track for the school. It meant
I didn't have to go to school that day, so I did it, not that I was bad at
my studies, on the contrary." She finished third off no specific training
and her talent was immediately evident. The Croatian's career was off and
running.
At first she ran middle distance but did not have enough speed over 800 and
1500m to make an impression internationally. Her performances over the
longer distances were better, however. She ran 9:08.49 for a Croatian
record over 3,000m. Road racing offered still more potential and she has
concentrated on this more since 2018, making her marathon debut in Berlin
in that year with 2:38:05. She had made great strides since then,
literally. At the Valencia Marathon in 2020 she emerged from the lockdown
of the Corona pandemic to break 2:30 for the first time, running 2:28:52.
This ensured Olympic qualification. Competing in the 2021 Olympic, held in
Sapporo, she achieved a highly creditable 21st place in extreme heat. She
made big improvement on her shorter distance speed as well in 2022, running
a personal best for 10km of 31:54 in Berlin, which stood her in good stead
for her eventual silver medal in the marathon at the European Championships
later that year.
This race transformed her life. "Without a medal, you're a nobody in
Croatia, but when you win one, you're a star overnight," explained Matea
Parlov Kostro. "I don't earn much more money but am regularly invited to
appear on TV programmes and people speak to me on the street and want to
take a photo of me, especially after a training run when they've seen me."
What does she think of the stupendous women's world record by the Ethiopian
Tigst Assefa, running 2:11:53 in Berlin? "When I saw the time, I was
shocked. I wouldn't have thought it possible that a woman could run so
fast. And she didn't show any weakness during the race after 30 kilometres,
it was astonishing." The best Europeans have in the past consistently
achieved high finishing places and even won medals at the Olympic Games.
Asked if she dreamed of winning an Olympic medal in Paris, Matea Parlov
Kostro replied: "Of course, an Olympic medal is the dream. But that's not
realistic, the African women are simply too strong."
Further information can be found at: www.frankfurt-marathon.com
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