{"id":576028,"date":"2020-09-13T16:18:54","date_gmt":"2020-09-13T14:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deploy.frankfurt-marathon.com\/?p=576028"},"modified":"2020-09-13T16:20:59","modified_gmt":"2020-09-13T14:20:59","slug":"576028","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.frankfurt-marathon.com\/en\/576028\/","title":{"rendered":"Amanal Petros and Melat Kejeta dominate Frankfurt half marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]Amanal Petros and Melat Kejeta dominated the Frankfurt Half Marathon Invitational on a warm Sunday morning. While Petros clocked 63:31 Kejeta ran a strong time of 69:04 on the flat 3k loop course inside the Frankfurt fairground. Both will head the German teams for the World Half Marathon Championships, which are planned to go ahead on 17 October in Gdynia, Poland.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The race was staged under coronavirus restrictions with social distancing and other hygiene measures in place. No spectators had access to the course. \u201eIn view of the situation it was a successful event, which made everyone involved feel positive – especially the athletes, but also the organizing team,\u201c said Jo Schindler. The Race Director of the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon, which had to be cancelled due to the Coronavirus situation, organized the half marathon with his team and with help of Berlin athletes\u2019 manager Christoph Kopp. \u201eIn the meantime we are optimistic that our marathon with the spectacular indoor finish will be back next year,\u201c said Jo Schindler.<\/p>\n

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Frankfurt\u2019s head of sports department Markus Frank started the race and commented: \u201eIt is really important for the sport that something takes place. Jo Schindler and his team have shown that it is possible and that some creativity is needed. I thank everyone who made this possible.\u201c<\/p>\n

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Dutch runner Mohamed Ali and Amanal Petros moved away from the main group early in the race. When they passed the 10k mark in slightly under 30 minutes the gap had grown. \u201eIt was great that Mohamed Ali ran with me, giving me some support,\u201c said Amanal Petros, who moved ahead with less than five kilometers to go. \u201eIt was great that this event was staged in these circumstances. It could not have been better and I have to thank the organizers.\u201c<\/p>\n

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While Mohamed Ali held on to second place in 63:51 Eritrea\u2019s Solomon Kidane finished third with 64:15. Meanwhile German marathon record holder Arne Gabius, who established the current mark of 2:08:33 in Frankfurt in 2015, was unlucky. Breathing problems forced him to stop after 9 k. He lost around two minutes, but did not give up. Gabius finished 18th in 67:30. \u201ePreparing for the marathon it was my aim to run a time of 64 today. It is a pity it was not possible as apart from the breathing problems I felt fine,\u201c said Arne Gabius, who targets the Olympic qualifying time of 2:11:30 in London on 4 October. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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In the women\u2019s race Melat Kejeta built a big lead early in the race. It was the first competition for the 27 year-old favourite since February, when she ran 68:56 in the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon (UAE). In Frankfurt she missed this time by just eight seconds. \u201eMy goal was to get a time of 67 today, however it was difficult running all on my own,\u201c said Melat Kejeta, who did not train for two months when the Coronavirus pandemic started. \u201eNow I am more optimistic again,\u201c said the former Ethiopian, who will prepare for the World Half Marathon Championships in St. Moritz (Switzerland).<\/p>\n

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Frankfurt\u2019s second placed Miriam Dattke ran 72:03 and should also have secured nomination for the championships in Gdynia. She had been following the pace of Katharina Steinruck for most of the race and then ran past her with around five kilometers left. \u201eI intended to run around one minute faster. But it was my first race for some time and somehow I felt nervous,\u201c said Katharina Steinruck, who tied her personal best of 72:23 in Frankfurt.<\/p>\n

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Results, Men:<\/p>\n

1. Amanal Petros GER 63:31<\/p>\n

2. Mohamed Ali NED 63:51<\/p>\n

3. Kidane Solomon ERI 64:15<\/p>\n

4. Simon Boch GER 64:28<\/p>\n

5. Tesfay Felfele ERI 64:30<\/p>\n

6. Alexander Hirschh\u00e4user GER 64:31<\/p>\n

7. Tom Gr\u00f6schel GER 64:36<\/p>\n

8. Thorben Dietz GER 64:37<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Women:<\/p>\n

1. Melat Kejeta GER 69:04<\/p>\n

2. Miriam Dattke GER 72:03<\/p>\n

3. Katharina Steinruck GER 72:23<\/p>\n

4. Franziska Althaus GER 77:30<\/p>\n

5. Katja Fischer GER 77:51<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Text: race-news-service.com
\nPicture: Norbert Wilhelmi[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”575944″][dhsv_vc_caption text=”Starting field of the Frankfurt Halfmarathon Invitational | Picture: Norbert Wilhelmi”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]Amanal Petros and Melat Kejeta dominated the Frankfurt Half Marathon Invitational on a warm Sunday morning. While Petros clocked 63:31 Kejeta ran a strong time of 69:04 on the flat 3k loop course inside the Frankfurt fairground. Both will head the German teams for the World Half Marathon Championships, which are planned to go ganzen Artikel lesen…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":707,"featured_media":575944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[362],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[33272,4166,16436,21758,4667,27477],"class_list":["post-576028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-news"],"acf":[],"newsThumbnail":"https:\/\/www.frankfurt-marathon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mainova-Frankfurt-Marathon_Marathon-News_Start-Frankfurt-Half-Marathon-Invitational_-374-360x202.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfurt-marathon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfurt-marathon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfurt-marathon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfurt-marathon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/707"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfurt-marathon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576028"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfurt-marathon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":576037,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfurt-marathon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576028\/revisions\/576037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfurt-marathon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfurt-marathon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfurt-marathon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfurt-marathon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576028"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfurt-marathon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=576028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}