FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Vienna City Marathon with Over 30,000 Runners
Samwel Mailu smashes course record in Vienna jubilee race
Kenya's Samwel Mailu smashed the nine year-old course record of the Vienna
City Marathon. When he stormed over the finish line at the Vienna
Burgtheater in 2:05:08 Austria's President Alexander Van der Bellen held
the finishing tape. Despite warm conditions during the second half of the
race the 30 year-old was 33 seconds quicker than the former course record
holder Getu Feleke of Ethiopia who had clocked 2:05:41 back in 2014. Fellow
Kenyans Bethwell Yegon and Titus Kimutai followed with 2:06:57 and 2:07:46
in second and third.
There was a Kenyan double triumph in the women's race: Magdalyne Masai took
the race with 2:24:12 from Agnes Keino, who ran 2:24:25. Ethiopia's Gadise
Mulu was third with 2:24:50. Austria's Julia Mayer broke the national
record by the tiniest of margins: With 2:30:42 she finished eighth and
improved the time by one second.
Including events at shorter distances 39,871 athletes were registered for
the 40th edition of the Vienna City Marathon, which is a World Athletics
Elite Label Road Race. 9,218 of those were marathon runners.
With temperatures climbing to around 20 Celsius in unexpectedly sunny
conditions during the second half of the jubilee race the men's leading
group was running a consistently fast pace. After a 29:43 10k split time a
group of eleven runners including three pacemakers reached half way in
62:43. The pace continued to be fast and the group then partly broke up
between 26 and 28k in the Prater Park, where Eliud Kipchoge had broken the
two hour barrier back in 2019. When the leaders reached 30k in 1:29:13
there were six runners still in contention and it was an all Kenyan affair:
Bethwell Yegon, Samwel Mailu, Titus Kimutai, Joshua Kogo, Bernard Chepkwony
and debutant Elvis Cheboi. The later two then lost contact soon while Mailu
started to pull away. Between 32 and 33k he had a lead of around 10 metres
over Kimutai and another 15 metres over Yegon. While these gaps grew
considerably in the final five kilometers Yegon was able to overtake
Kimutai for second place.
But there was no way of catching Samwel Mailu, who had run an unexpected
marathon debut in Frankfurt last autumn. He was a pacemaker but then
continued to run and finished second with 2:07:19. βThe race in Frankfurt
gave me a lot of motivation. For me today was a kind of another marathon
debut. This was my biggest career win,β said Samwel Mailu.
Sondre Moen was the fastest European runner in Vienna in eighth position.
But with a time of 2:10:23 the Norwegian missed his goal of a sub 2:10
finish. This was also the aim for Germany's Sebastian Hendel who ran
2:11:29 for ninth place. There was more disappointment for Andreas Vojta of
Austria. He lost contact to the group well before the 20k mark and finished
in 14th position with 2:19:27.
In contrast the women never really startet the planned attack on the course
record. With slower split times than expected there were initially eleven
runners in the first group. Once the pace picked up a bit the group was
reduced to seven at the 10k mark (33:48). Six women then reached half way
in 72:04: Kenyans Viseline Jepkesho, Magdalyne Masai, Rebecca Tanui, Agnes
Keino as well as Ethiopians Gadise Mulu and Nurit Shimels. Tanui and
Shimels were then dropped while the other four passed the 30k mark in
1:41:58.
With little over seven kilometers to go Agnes Keino made a move in the
Prater Park. The winner of last year's Munich Marathon was approximately 15
metres ahead of Magdalyne Masai, but she could not increase her advantage.
Instead Masai came back and overtook her Kenyan rival soon afterwards. β It
was a perfect race for me. I ran well and had some energy left for the last
couple of kilometers. I have prepared for the Vienna City Marathon since
January. I am very happy to have won, but I would have like to run a bit
faster than 2:24,β said Magdalyne Masai, who is the younger sister of the
2009 World 10,000 m Champion Linet Masai and of Moses Masai, the bronze
medallist at these championships over 10,000 m.
Among the races staged parallel to the marathon there was a new 5k event
which took place in the heart of Vienna on Saturday evening. Over 1,800
runners participated in this event. While this is not designed as an elite
race there were some fast times and even a national record: Women's winner
Klara Lukan clocked 15:32 and broke the Slovenian 5k record. 18 year-old
Austrian talent Emil Bezecny took the men's race with 14:57.
Results, Men:
1. Samwel Mailu KEN 2:05:08
2. Bethwell Yegon KEN 2:06:57
3. Titus Kimutai KEN 2:07:46
4. Joshua Kogo KEN 2:08:39
5. Dominic Letting KEN 2:09:16
6. Joel Melly KEN 2:09:57
7. Elvis Cheboi KEN 2:10:21
8. Sondre Moen NOR 2:10:23
9. Sebastian Hendel GER 2:11:29
10. Felicien Muhitira RWA 2:11:32
Women:
1. Magdalyne Masai KEN 2:24:12
2. Agnes Keino KEN 2:24:25
3. Gadise Mulu ETH 2:24:50
4. Rebecca Tanui KEN 2:26:34
5. Visiline Jepkesho KEN 2:27:13
6. Caroline Jepchirchir KEN 2:27:46
7. Angelika Mach POL 2:30:05
8. Julia Mayer AUT 2:30:42
9. Nuriet Shimels ETH 2:31:01
10. Zeritu Tadese ETH 2:32:16
For more information please visit: www.vienna-marathon.com
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