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Disqualifications at the 30th real,- BERLIN MARATHON 2003

A few did not even make it to the 5 km mark

2003-11-04

The chip on the foot and the resulting time checks every 5 km of the course made the controls possible: A few of the runners started at the Straße des 17. Juni and also arrived at the finish near the Brandenburg Gate. But between start and finish they did something else—ride the subway, a bike or some such thing.

127 participants (105 men/22 women) were disqualified from the 30th real,- BERLIN MARATHON on September 28, 2003 and removed from the results list.

A few did not even make it to the 5 km mark, but then showed up directly at the finish. For many, the halfway point was almost the finish, and one female participant “ran“ the second half of the course (half marathon) faster than the current half marathon world record for the men (under 59 minutes).

Most of them made it at least to the 25 km mark, but then disappeared. A few turned up again at 40 km, and all picked up their medals at the finish. The 40 km mark was the “breaking point“—it was the located at the outer side of the course in Karl-Liebknecht-Straße/near Spandauer Straße. Whoever did not run over the control mats there did not receive a final time at the finish.

On participant made the excuse that for health reasons he had run barefoot until km 35, and only then put on his shoes (with the chip) and was thus so late registered by the mats. On runner (M 50) admitted that he had illegally given his race number to a younger runner (M 35), who then won his age group! One female runner was honest and said that she gave up at the 32 km mark, but the system registered her at the finish when she passed closely by. There were also disqualifications at the 15th real,- MINI MARATHON of the schools. A few schools had to be disqualified whose girls teams were manned by fast running boys.

Prior to the race, all of the participants had been warned intensively by the organisation that they would be disqualified for such breaches of the rules. In 2001 there were 74 disqualifications, the year before 87 disqualifications.

There was a total of 38.468 “finishers“ from 99 countries at the 30th real,- BERLIN MARATHON—a new record (30,709 runners, 7,547 inline skaters, 128 power walkers, and 84 wheelchair racers).