Press Release - Vienna City Marathon - 2/20/08

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

          Vienna City Marathon celebrates its 25th edition:
        Already 9,000 entries for jubilee race on 27th April

This year's Vienna City Marathon will mark a special occasion: When the 
race will be started on 27th April a couple of hundred thousands of 
spectators will witness a jubilee event in the capital. It will be the 25th 
edition of Austria's biggest and most prestigious road race. This is one 
reason why entry figures are soaring. So far about 9,000 runners have 
registered for the race, which includes a half marathon, a relay event plus 
three races for juniors and children. Another reason for the growing 
popularity of the Vienna City Marathon is that the event has established 
itself as a major international marathon. The elite fields in recent years 
were much stronger than before. Additionally the race can offer a unique 
combination of sports and culture: 'Run Vienna – Enjoy Classic' is the 
motto of the Vienna City Marathon.

When the first edition of the race was started on 25th March 1984 
organisers were proud to register 794 finishers at the Heldenplatz' which 
is still the site of the spectacular finish today. "We will see times in 
the future when we will have ten times as many participants," said Helmut 
Zilk after he had started the first race 24 years ago. At that time the 
words of the Austrian minister for education and art may have sounded a bit 
exaggerated. But the development of the Vienna City Marathon proved that 
the minister was right.

There was a difficult period though: After a couple of years enthusiasm for 
Austria's first big city marathon seemed to get lost with entry numbers 
stagnating. It was then in 1989 when former steeple chaser Wolfgang Konrad 
took over as race director. Konrad, who at that time was the Austrian 
steeple record holder (8:17.22 minutes) and a prominent athlete, guided the 
race into a prosperous future. This year's event will also mark a personal 
jubilee for Konrad, because it will be his 20th Vienna City Marathon in 
charge as race director. In 1995 his race was the first one which used chip 
timing for the entire field of runners. Five years later Konrad started 
another technical innovation, which became very popular in many races 
worldwide: The sending of text messages with finishing times.

In 2007 a record field of 26,249 runners from more than 80 countries 
participated in the event. It looks very likely that this year's jubilee 
race will attract an even larger number of athletes. But the Vienna City 
Marathon did not only develop great regarding the mass race. Today's course 
records are world class: In 2006 Marocco's Lahoucine Mrikik clocked 2:08:20 
while six years earlier Maura Viceconte had run 2:23:47. There are not that 
many city marathons that have these sort of world class course records.

Looking at Vienna's list of winners one finds a number of prominent names 
in long distance running: Ahmed Salah (Djibouti) took the race in 1997, 
Kenyans Moses Tanui and Joseph Chebet won in 2002 and 2003 while former 
Kenyan Mubarak Shami (Qatar) was the winner in 2005. Luke Kibet (Kenya) 
triumphed a year ago, qualifying for the World Championships. He then went 
on to take the marathon gold medal in Osaka 2007. Lidia Simon (Romania) and 
Franziska Rochat-Moser (Switzerland), who sadly died in a skiing accident 
later, both placed second at the Vienna City Marathon.

It is the goal of Race Director Wolfgang Konrad and his team to strengthen 
the position of the Vienna City Marathon as one of the major marathons 
worldwide. This means further developing of the mass race as well as the 
elite field plus the programme offered to runners during the weekend. This 
year participants of the race can enjoy a special concert by the world 
famous boys choir 'Wiener Sängerknaben' on the day before the race. At 
various points along the marathon course classic music from Wolfgang 
Amadeus Mozart and Johann Strauß will be played on race day. 

More information and online entry for the 25th Vienna City Marathon is 
available at: www.vienna-marathon.com

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