Konstanze Klosterhalfen’s return is not going well yet. After her early exit from a half marathon, she explains her reasons.
No tailor-made comeback for Konstanze Klosterhalfen: The top German runner had to cancel her first race after a long break from competition and finish it early. The 5,000-meter European champion dropped out of the half marathon in Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates shortly after the ten-kilometer mark.
“I didn’t feel good, so I left the race,” said Klosterhalfen, according to a report from the “laufen.de” portal. She has good memories of this distance: Klosterhalfen surprisingly won her debut over the almost 21.1 kilometer long route in October 2022 in Valencia in 1:05:41 hours.
Her manager Dany Biegler explained that she felt something on Saturday after she ran the first ten kilometers in 31:09 minutes. Therefore, she decided not to finish the race. “The legs have closed,” said Biegler, also referring to the long break from racing. The foot injury from last year has now healed.
Six weeks of preparation
For the 27-year-old, her debut in the Olympic year was the first race since the previous summer. Klosterhalfen had canceled her start at the German championships at the beginning of July due to a stress reaction in her foot and was then also missing from the following World Championships in Budapest. The Leverkusen player had not been able to match her performance before.
Klosterhalfen is now looked after by Northern Irishman Gary Lough, the husband of the former marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe. After switching supplier from Nike to Puma, Irishman Alistair Cragg initially took over as coach. Klosterhalfen spent six weeks preparing for the half marathon on the Persian Gulf in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.
The Ethiopian Tsigie Gebreselama won in 1:05:14 hours, while the Kenyan Daniel Mateiko won the men’s event in 58:45 minutes.