NOS Sports•today, 11:21•Amended today, 2:49 PM
Nienke Brinkman was unable to reach the Olympic limit at the last opportunity. At the Hamburg marathon, the 30-year-old athlete finished between the measuring points of the 15 and 20 kilometers.
“My legs simply stopped working. They could no longer absorb the blows,” Brinkman said afterwards. “When my coach took me out of the match, my legs also collapsed.”
After April 30, it is no longer possible to compete for a starting ticket for Paris 2024. Because Brinkman is also not eligible to qualify via the rankings, she will not run next summer’s Olympic marathon.
“That’s a shame,” said the 30-year-old athlete, who won bronze at the European Championships in 2022. “There was of course a good chance that I wouldn’t make it, but I’m glad I tried. Otherwise I would have regretted it.”
Persistent leg injury
Brinkman struggled with a persistent leg injury for a year. Only four days before the marathon in Hamburg, her coaching team gave the green light to participate.
Brinkman’s goal in Hamburg was “purely” to run the limit, her manager Valentijn Trouw clarified before the marathon.
So she did not run for the win, but followed her own schedule that should earn her a ticket for the Olympic Games next summer. That went well in the first kilometers and after fifteen kilometers she was running on a schedule that would take her to 2.26.14.
That would be enough for an Olympic ticket, because the limit is 2.26.50. But she didn’t complete the marathon. She got out before the measuring point at 20 kilometers.
Brinkman emphasizes that it is not another injury. “I just didn’t do enough running training leading up to this marathon. I started running again in mid-March and have since run as much as I normally do in one week.”
Yet she also enjoyed being at the start of a marathon again. “I was really looking forward to it. I just needed a little more time to prepare.”
Bernard Koech won the men’s Hamburg marathon, just like last year. With 2.04.23 the Kenyan remained 0.14 above his course record. In the women’s race, Kenya also won: Irine Cheptai won in 2.18.21.
Luijten and Hassan
Anne Luijten and Sifan Hassan had been certain of a starting ticket for the Olympic marathon for a long time. Luijten, two-time national champion, ran a time of 2.26.36 during the Amsterdam marathon last year.
It is not yet clear whether Hassan will include the marathon in her Olympic program. With 2.13.44, the Ethiopian-born athlete has run the second fastest time ever.
Only just before the Games does Hassan decide whether she will start in the marathon or prefer the track program. There she can choose from the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters. Another possibility is that Hassan combines part of the track program with the marathon.
