The organizers said they were “deeply shocked and saddened” by the death at the Munich Marathon on Sunday in a statement on Monday. A 24-year-old participant from Munich collapsed during the run near Odeonsplatz and was taken to hospital under ongoing resuscitation, where he died.
“This tragic development is unbelievable and extremely painful for all of us,” said event manager Gernot Weigl on behalf of the team and everyone involved. “In these difficult hours, our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the deceased.”
According to Anton Martić, press spokesman for the Munich Marathon, it was the first death in the 23 years Weigl has been running the event. The police had already announced on Sunday that, as usual, an autopsy would most likely be ordered in cases of unexplained deaths.
The Red Cross reports a total of 52 supplies and a variety of assistance along the route and in the Olympic area. 16 runners had to go to Munich hospitals for further treatment. The most common causes were circulatory problems and falls, according to operations manager Michael Wieland. A total of around 200 people, including six emergency doctors, were on duty with the support of Johanniter-Unfallhilfe.
Two breakdowns had previously occurred during the race. While the men ran about 100 meters too much due to a misdirection, the fastest women turned around too early when they made a turn. “Why they turned so early is still being analyzed,” said race director Gernot Weigl on Bayerischer Rundfunk.
According to the best German starter Sebastian Hendel, the fastest men took a wrong turn shortly after kilometer 10. “It was about 20 seconds more that we had over the kilometer,” reported Hendel, who set a personal best (2:10, 14) set up.
In the women’s race, the leading Kenyans Catherine Cherotich and Tecla Chebet, among others, turned around too early on Ludwigstrasse just before Odeonsplatz. Weigl’s race management decided at short notice to extend the course in the Olympic Stadium by two laps of 400 meters each. Cherotich secured victory in 2:31.34 hours. The route will be remeasured on Monday to ensure the validity of the results.
23,000 runners, 60,000 spectators
The number of spectators has probably increased because of the state elections. At least that was the assessment of race director Weigl. The competition is currently attempting an organizational balancing act: on the one hand, the aim is to attract top athletes since last year, but on the other hand, it also wants to continue to be considered a popular sports event.
“The route was really well attended,” said Weigl shortly after the award ceremony – and sometimes even a little better near polling stations. There were seven crossings where the marathon and elections crossed each other. For this purpose, additional stewards were assigned to avoid possible collisions between voters and walkers.
It remains to be clarified whether the two mishaps in the main race were perhaps due to barriers being moved due to the proximity to a polling station crossing. There had been detailed discussions between the organizer and the city in advance, not least because there were logistical problems with the federal election at the 2021 Berlin Marathon.
No problems with the state elections
Weigl estimates that around 60,000 spectators were at the route. He was also happy with the field of participants: “We had over 2,000 late registrations, which is twice as many as in previous years,” said the organizer happily. And with all the races taken together, the participation record was broken with almost 23,000 runners.
Even though the weather wasn’t that great anymore, the route was still very well attended during the half marathon. Many had motivational signs with them, some also had ghetto blasters. Thousands of people cheered on the runners near Odeonsplatz, at the corner of Ludwigstrasse and Theresienstrasse, and at kilometer 16 there was a samba group for that extra kick of motivation. And one thing is certain: there were so few problems around the route on Sunday that no new elections need to be called because of the Munich Marathon.