Rosemary Wanjiru made no attempt to play down her tag of favorite when she spoke to the media ahead of Sunday’s BMW BERLIN-MARATHON.
“If the weather is good and I feel fine in the morning, I intend to run a very fast time,“ said the Kenyan runner, with a smile.
Only Wanjiru will know how she pulls up on Sunday morning but her other criteria for running a fast time – the weather – is forecast in her favour with runners due to set off in warm sunshine.
Wanjiru, who ran 2:16:14 in Tokyo last year, is the quickest runner in the women’s field which boasts seven athletes who have run under 2:20.
The 30-year-old has pedigree too, having won in Tokyo in 2023 and finished runner-up here in Berlin a year earlier.
Wanjiru’s competition is likely to come in the shape of Dera Dida whose form is trending upwards this year.
The Ethiopian finished sixth in Berlin last year but knocked almost a minute off her personal best in Dubai this year when she clocked 2:18:32.
Japanese record holder Honami Maeda is another athlete who has run below 2:19:00.
She could continue the series of strong performances that Japanese athletes have shown in Berlin in the past. The highlight was Naoko Takahashi's run in 2001, when she became the first woman to break the 2:20:00 barrier with a time of 2:19:46. Four years later, the 2004 Olympic champion, Mizuki Noguchi, won in Berlin with a time of 2:19:12.
This Japanese record stood for 19 years until Honami Maeda broke the mark in Osaka in January 2024 with a time of 2:18:59.
There will be local interest too with Domenika Mayer, who competed in the 2024 Olympic Games and is the third fastest German runner of all time, leading a group which includes Fabienne Königstein and Deborah Schöneborn.
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