The 29th ING Amsterdam Marathon will take place on Sunday 17 October 2004, starting at 11 a.m. at the Olympic Stadium. The flat, fast track made for fantastic results in 2003. The Kenyan athlete William Kipsang brought the track record to 2.06.39. Kamiel Maase improved Gerard Nijboer’s 19080 national record (2.09.01) by no less than 30 seconds, bringing it to 2.08.31. This made Amsterdam move to the fourth place in the world ranking of fastest marathon towns.

The total number of entries for the full, half and 10-km marathons was 11,758, 3,908 of whom were foreigners from 54 different countries and 2,502 occupants of Amsterdam. The live broadcast on Dutch television attracted an audience of 526,000, while the summary later that evening was watched by 2,154,000 people.

The International Association of Athletics Federations IAAF has classified the ING Amsterdam Marathon in the Golden League category, along with eleven other leading marathons: Chicago, London, Berlin, Rotterdam, New York, Paris, Milan, Boston and the Japanese marathons held in Tokyo, Otsu and Fukuoka. Amsterdam also ranks among the twelve Golden League towns for women’s marathons.

More information: www.amsterdammarathon.nl