Nagy, the 33-year-old Olympic silver medalist, was the first to cross the finish line on Coolsingel after 42.195 kilometers in 2:04:56. So he has fallen below the 2.06.17 he ran in Rotterdam three years ago. Nageeye sprinted alongside Ethiopian Leul Gebresilase for hundreds of metres. The Dutchman was a little faster. He is the first Dutch winner of the Rotterdam Marathon.
“This is a dream that seemed so far away,” said the athlete shortly after the end. NOS† “Actually, since 2010, when I asked myself if I would continue my studies or focus on athletics. (…) At the end of last year I thought I could win in New York, but then I made a big mistake. Now I won Rotterdam I don’t realize it yet. I’m very proud and happy.”
His Belgian friend Bachir Abdi, who won the race in Rotterdam last fall with a European record of 2.03.36, had to leave a gap as he entered the final kilometer. Abdi finished fourth with a time of 2:05:23, behind Kenya’s Robin Kibigo (2.05.12).
Bjorn Cormann finished ninth with a time of 2:10.32. The athlete from Brabant did his best, but was half a minute short of the limit at the World Championships in Athletics in Eugene this summer. He met the maximum limit for the European Championship in Munich.
Ninky Brinkman
Among the women, Ninke Brinkmann improved the nineteen-year-old Dutch record. The 28-year-old stopped the clock at 2.22.51 at the finish. Lorna Kiplagat has managed 2.23.43 books. Kiplagat ran that time in 2003, the New York Marathon.
Brinkman finished second in the race. She just had to put up with the Ethiopian port of Hailu, who unceremoniously won in 2:21:59.
Brinkman has only started working in earnest since the coronavirus pandemic. Before that, she was a passionate hockey player. In Switzerland, where Leiderdorpse is born and lives and studies geophysics, she has developed into a great Dutch sprinter in a relatively short time. Last year she ran 2:26.34 on her marathon debut, the third fastest time ever set by a Dutch athlete. In her second race of 42.195 kilometres, she already became the fastest Dutch rider ever.
