Maria Legelli from Böbing achieved a top 20 placement at the German marathon championship. But she had to fight for it until the end.
Hanover
– Things got really uncomfortable for Maria Elisa Legelli on the home straight. In any case, the long-distance specialist from Böbing had to suffer a lot at the German marathon championship.
Maria Legelli impresses at the Marathon DM in Hanover
“I didn’t travel to Hanover 100 percent fit,” said the 32-year-old. Illness and injury had slowed
her preparation
. And then at the end of the 42.195 kilometers she still had to fight for her position. In the duel with Caroline Grauer (LG Region Karlsruhe), Legelli prevailed and crossed the finish line in 17th place overall for the women.
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“For me it was one of the hardest marathons,” reported the IT specialist who lives in Füssen and works in Sonthofen. The poor preparation was the reason why Legelli found the classic distance so difficult this time. “But I was able to push through again.” The time was once again impressive: after 2:53:15 hours she reached the finish line on Friedrichswall.
Not quite fit, but a time of 2:53 hours
Legelli traveled at an average speed of 14.6 km/h and completed each kilometer in just 4:06 minutes. In her own words, the athlete from the “Laufarena Allgäu” was satisfied with her time. The reigning Bavarian champion came eleventh in her age group. The atmosphere in Hanover “was great, the weather was good, just a little windy,” reported Legelli. “There was a strong headwind on the route at times.”
The appearance in Hanover was the Füssen native's second marathon this year.
In February she completed the 42.195 kilometers in 2:48 hours at the competition in Seville
, making her the second best German finisher. She ran her previous best time (2:47:10) in September 2023 in Berlin. In Hanover, Legelli came out of the affair very well. According to the results list, she completed the first ten kilometers in 39:40 minutes, and the half marathon mark was reached after 1:24:59 hours. When the woman from Füssen passed the 35 kilometer mark, 2:22:55 hours had passed.
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Legelli wants to use the next period of time “for good regeneration” in order to get completely fit again. She has more marathons planned for this year and is being supported in her preparations by Allgäu coach Michael Hiemeyer. As of now, the Münster Marathon will conclude the season in September.
Hugo Mann from TSV Penzberg wins gold in M70
Hugo Mann
traveled home from the title fights in Lower Saxony
with a gold medal in his luggage .
The 69-year-old from TSV Penzberg won the M70 class in a superior manner. With a time of 3:13:23 hours, the doctor of finance had a whopping 24 minutes lead over second place, Günther Lippold (LG Filder). Mann had just won
the gold medal in his class at the German championships in the 10-kilometer road run
in March . In Leverkusen he won with 40:38 minutes. In Hanover he ran the section in 44:23 minutes and completed the first half of the marathon distance in 1:34:47 hours.
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Christoph Spitzeberger (born 1991) from TSV Penzberg also started at the DM. He achieved a personal best time of 2:45:32 hours, which gave him 107th place overall among men and 30th place in his class. Spitzeberger was on a course for a long time for 2:40 hours, but from kilometer 32 “he ran out of energy,” according to TSV Penzberg.
Amanal Petros (2:06:05) from SCC Berlin and Domenika Mayer (2:23:50) from LG Telis Finanz Regensburg won the German championship titles across all age groups. Both top runners who qualified for the 2024 Olympics have improved their respective course records.
Petros ran the second fastest marathon of his career and won DM gold for the first time. On top of that, he topped the DLV annual best list. The top position so far was held by Samuel Fitwi Sibhatu (2:06:27/run in Dubai in January). Domenika Mayer also ran the second best time of her career, missing her best time by just three seconds. In 2022, as a marathon debutant, she had already won the DM title.