Debutants Domenika Mayer and Hendrik Pfeiffer won the Hanover marathon with strong performances and thus secured the German championship title.

The 30-year-old Mayer (Regensburg), mother of two daughters, ran in her first race over the classic 42.195 kilometers in 2:26:50 hours in twelfth place on the "eternal" German list of the best and clearly undercut the World Cup norm.

At the 30th edition of the race, which was last canceled twice due to the corona pandemic, Mayer prevailed at just above zero degrees ahead of the favorite Berliner Rabea Schöneborn (2:27:35).

"I didn't calculate anything, I just wanted to get to the finish," Mayer said on NDR: "I ran free, it was so much fun."

Pfeiffer (29/Wattenscheid) won in 2:10:59 hours ahead of Kenyan Josphat Kiptis (2:13:47) and thus ensured the first German success in Hanover since Stephan Freigang in 1999. “When I was 30 kilometers alone was, it got really hard with the wind.

My goal was under 2:11 and the title, I'm incredibly relieved," said Pfeiffer, who also undercut the World Championship benchmark.

Already seven women and four men with World Cup standard

The norm for the World Championships in Eugene in July is 2:11:30 (men) and 2:29:30 (women), for the European Championships in Munich in August 2:14:30 and 2:32 must be achieved.

Led by the German record holder Amanal Petros (Wattenscheid/2:06:27) and Katharina Steinruck (Frankfurt/2:25:59), seven women and four men have already undercut the World Cup norm in the specified period since November 30, 2020.

A double start at the World and European Championships is out of the question, Mayer is more likely to run in Munich.

18,098 runners took part in the first major road run of the year in Germany, 3,527 of them over the marathon distance.

Two years ago, no DM titles were awarded due to the pandemic. Last year, Alexander Hirschhäuser (Breidenbach/2:18:38) and Corinna Harrer (Regensburg/2:43:11) won the title fights as part of the Munich marathon.

Course record at the Berlin Half Marathon

Sheila Kiprotich set a course record at the 41st Berlin Half Marathon.

The Kenyan broke the previous best time on Sunday by 14 seconds.

Alex Kibet, also from Kenya, won the men's race with a clear lead and a time of 58:54 minutes - but he missed the course record by 13 seconds.

Favorite Abel Kipchumba finished third.

The best German was Johannes Motschmann from the Marathon Team Berlin.

Born in Magdeburg, he ran a personal best of 1:01:44 hours.

The women also started quickly, with Sheila Kiprotich positioning herself first early on and keeping the rest of the field at a distance.

With temperatures just above freezing, the 31-year-old crossed the finish line in 1:05:02 hours.

The best German participant was Katharina Steinruck, who also ran a personal best with a time of less than 70 minutes.

Ethiopian Deso Gelmisa and Kenya's Judith Jeptum secured victories at the Paris Marathon.

Gelmisa prevailed in 2:05:07 hours just ahead of his compatriot Seifu Tura (2:05:10).

Jeptum won by a wide margin and in 2:19:48 hours improved the course record of her compatriot Purity Rionoripo (2:20:55/2017) by more than a minute.

Around 45,000 runners took part in the largest spring marathon.

A total of 33,336 participants from 121 nations registered for the Berlin Half Marathon.

"It's a wonderful sign for our city and for freedom," said Berlin's Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey, who gave the starting signal.

Among the participants were also people from Ukraine.