Prague, February 24th, 2011: At a press conference held today in Prague, Prague International Marathon spol. s r.o. (“PIM”) announced the official launch of its PIM Running Circuit 2011 and highlighted some of its main events. These include the increasingly popular Hervis Prague Half Marathon, which will take place on Saturday, April 2nd, whilst the Volkswagen Prague Marathon will be on 8th May and the Mattoni Prague Grand Prix on 10th September.
The Hervis Prague Half Marathon will welcome two of its previous winners, the Kenyan runners Rose Kosgei (1:09:03), the winner in both 2009 and 2010, and Nicholas Kipruto Koech (1:00:07), the winner in 2009, both of whom have already confirmed their participation. The list of some of the best European runners includes the French record holder, Christelle Daunay, (1:08:34) and the best Austrian runner and record-holder Gunther Weidlinger (1:01:41) who will both surely challenge their African competition. Already, too, PIM has confirmed that Yeman Tsegay Adhane from Ethiopia (2:06:30) will again be lining up in this year’s Volkswagen Prague Marathon, and he will be hoping to push the pace towards another record.
Talking about the PIM Running Circuit 2011, Carlo Capalbo, President of the Organising Committee said:
„This year marks the seventeenth anniversary of the Prague International Marathon. When I think back to its first year, when we had less than a thousand runners and just a handful of professional athletes, I don’t think I could have dreamed that one day we would have a field with the worldclass quality that we have this year!“
The Hervis Prague Half Marathon is one of two races organised by PIM that holds the prestigious IAAF Road Race Gold Label, and it is fast becoming one of the most popular half marathons in Europe, attracting runners from all over the world. The Volkswagen Prague Marathon followed the Hervis Prague Half Marathon by being awarded the IAAF Road Race Gold Label for this year, due in no small part to having both the female and male track records broken in 2010 – Kenyan Eliud Kiptanui´s time of 2:05:39 made Prague the seventh fastest marathon.
This year is also a special year for PIM and Volkswagen, as it sees them celebrate the 10 year anniversary of their cooperation. The companies announced a new 5-year partnership contract which was signed at the beginning of the year.
For more information on all of the above, please visit: www.praguemarathon.com.