Russian Irina Timoveyeva sets record at Hamburg Marathon

HAMBURG, Germany — Irina Timoveyeva won the Hamburg Marathon in record time on Sunday.

The 38-year-old Russian finished in two hours 24 minutes 14 seconds to break the Hamburg record shared by Robe Tola of Ethiopia and Katrin Doerre-Heinig of Germany by 21 seconds.

Many runners struggled to cope with the warm weather as temperatures reached 22 C.

"It was very hard, but the spectators helped me along," Timoveyeva said.

Pamela Chepchumba of Kenya was second in 2:28:36, with Roba Ashagigi of Ethiopia third in 2:29:28.

In the men's race, David Mandago of Kenya won in a personal-best time of 2:07:23 to end the four-year reign of Spanish runner Julio Rey. Wilfred Kigen of Kenya was second in 2:07:48, followed by Tariku Jufar of Ethiopia in 2:08:10.

Rey faded to 16th place.

The German runners failed to join Irina Mikitenko - who won the London Marathon two weeks ago - with fast enough times to qualify for the Olympics.