Final measurement in the middle of the night
Pfeiffer’s marathon wrong path is long enough for the World Cup
04/12/2022, 12:47 p.m
At the Hanover marathon, Hendrik Pfeiffer meets the World Cup standard – but gets lost on the way to the finish. The organizers must therefore measure whether the runner has nevertheless completed the minimum required 42.195 kilometers. In the middle of the night there is the positive result.
The German marathon champion Hendrik Pfeiffer can breathe a sigh of relief: The route in Hanover was long enough on April 3rd. A re-measurement revealed this on Tuesday night, a spokesman for the organization team confirmed: “We have confirmation that everything is in order. A licensed surveyor with a police escort checked that.” According to NDR, it was clear at 4:23 a.m.: At 42.196 kilometers, the distance run was one meter longer than necessary, despite the small mistake.
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 NDR had previously reported that the deviation was so small despite the wrong choice of line because the two routes reunited shortly afterwards.
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.
Pfeiffer had an interview with after fulfilling the norm light athletics.com declares that he wants to prefer the European title fights in the Bavarian state capital to the World Championships in the north-west of the USA, since an EM has “such a charisma in its own country”. Also because he calculates his chances of a medal, especially with the marathon team (“It’s stronger than ever”). Led by German record holder Amanal Petros, Pfeiffer is now definitely one of four DLV runners to have met the norm for both international championships.