European Championships bronze medallist de La Ossa runs debut at real,- Berlin Marathon

Spain’s Juan Carlos de la Ossa will be running his debut at the 33. real,- BERLIN-MARATHON on September 24 th. The 29 year-old Spaniard will among others to compete against Haile Gebrselassie at the third race of the World Marathon Majors series (WMM) in Berlin. 40,000 runners are already confirmed for the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON and no more participants are accepted. Further entries are not possible anymore.

"With Juan Carlos de la Ossa we were able to sign an athlete who has the potential to become a world-class marathon runner. On the fast course in Berlin he could be in for a surprise at first go," said the Race Director of the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON, Mark Milde, who announced this shortly after the men’s marathon at the European Championships. There Juan Carlos de la Ossa had shown a good race. Despite a small injury to his right foot he was able to win the bronze medal in the 10,000 m. It shows that he is in a good shape during his preparations for the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON.

"I want to beat the time my coach ran in Berlin," said Juan Carlos de la Ossa in Gothenburg. Antonio Sanchez-Serrano, who is coaching de la Ossa now, was third in Berlin in 1994 with a time of 2:09:13 hours. It was a Spanish record at that time.