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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 6:55 a.m., Sunday, April 27, 2008

Running: Russian sets record at Hamburg Marathon

Associated Press

HAMBURG, Germany — Irina Timoveyeva won the Hamburg Marathon in a record time today.

The 38-year-old Russian finished in 2 hours, 24 minutes, 14 seconds to break the Hamburg record shared by Robe Tola of Ethiopia and Katrin Doerre-Heinig of Germany by 21 seconds.

Many runners struggled to cope with the warm weather as temperatures reached 72 degrees.

"It was very hard, but the spectators helped me along," Timoveyeva said.

Pamela Chepchumba of Kenya was second in 2:28:36, with Roba Ashagigi of Ethiopia third in 2:29:28.

In the men's race, David Mandago of Kenya won in a personal-best time of 2:07:23 to end the four-year reign of Spanish runner Julio Rey. Wilfred Kigen of Kenya was second in 2:07:48, followed by Tariku Jufar of Ethiopia in 2:08:10.

Rey faded to 16th place.

The German runners failed to join Irina Mikitenko — who won the London Marathon two weeks ago — with fast enough times to qualify for the Olympics.

That included European champion Ulrike Maisch, who gave up after 10 miles. She has until May 18 to qualify for the Olympics.