Hanover (AP) – The German marathon champion Hendrik Pfeiffer can breathe easy. The route in Hanover was long enough on April 3rd.
A re-measurement revealed this, a spokesman for the organization team confirmed when asked by dpa: “We have confirmation that everything fits. A licensed surveyor with a police escort checked that.” The NDR had previously reported about it.
The leading group around Pfeiffer over the 42.195 kilometers went unnoticed at a crossroads, following the half marathon line instead of the marathon line and thus completed a distance that was around 88 meters shorter. When measuring the route, however, a buffer is usually taken into account. It is usually 42 meters, in Hanover it is said to have been a little more.
The problem was noticed later and subsequent athletes were guided correctly. Pfeiffer won the race in 2:10:59 minutes and thus met the norm for both the World Championships (2:11:30) in July in Eugene in the USA and the European Championships (2:14:30) in August in Munich . A possible mistake on the route could have been a problem for the German champions for participating in one of the two highlights of the season. According to the spokesman, Pfeiffer himself is said to have dealt with the problem in a relaxed manner anyway, since his own recording showed 42.5 kilometers.