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In Berlin, Sonja Oberem hopes to prove that she should have been taken to Athens
2004-08-28
Instead of the Olympic marathon in Athens, Sonja Oberem will be running the 31st real,- BERLIN MARATHON on September 26, 2004. Mark Milde, the race director of the largest and most spectacular German race over the classical 42.195 km announced on August 22 that they had received a commitment from the 31-year-old runner. "We are thrilled that we will have the strongest German female marathon runner of the past few years at the start, despite the Olympic Games this fall,“ said Mark Milde.Originally Sonja Oberem (Bayer Leverkusen) had hoped to run the Olympic marathon in Athens last Sunday. But the National Olympic Committee (NOK) rejected the late nomination by the German Athletics Association (DLV).
Due to injuries, Oberem, who was 8th in the1996 Olympics and 5th in the world championships in 2001, had to first pass up the Hamburg Marathon. She was finally able to participate in the Vienna Marathon in May, where she came in third place with the best time of the year for Germany, 2:30:58h. Oberem, who was also the third-place finisher at the European Championships in Munich in 2002, missed, however, the qualifying time by 58 seconds. But the conditions in Vienna were terrible, windy and rainy, which makes her time at least a minute more valuable. But that was not good enough for the DLV. Sonja Oberem was only nominated after she had run a further half marathon test just a few weeks later—which is really pointless so shortly after running a marathon.
But the NOK did not accept it. That was especially strange since SonjaOberem knows the marathon course from Athens very well. In the past she had won the marathon on the same course two times. And the fact that she can handle the heat is also well known!
On September 26, 2004, Sonja Oberem hopes to prove with a new personal best time on the world record course of the real,- BERLIN MARATHON that it was a mistake not to take her to the Olympics.
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