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Abel Kirui breaks course record in jubilee edition

Kenya's Abel Kirui won the 25th edition of the Vienna City Marathon with a
new course record. The 25 year-old Kenyan clocked 2:07:38 and achieved the
first sub 2:08 time in the history of the event. The men's race produced
the best ever results of the Vienna City Marathon with three runners
finishing inside 2:09. Duncan Kibet was second with 2:08:33 while Paul
Biwott (both Kenya) ran 2:08:53. In warm weather conditions with
temperatures over 20 degrees Celsius at the end of the race defending
champion Luminita Talpos won again. The 35 year-old Romanian clocked
2:26:43 which is the third fastest ever in the history of the Vienna City
Marathon. Tomo Morimoto (Japan) was second with 2:29:01 while Beatrice
Omwanza (Kenya) took third in 2:37:36.

Adding all running events a record number of 30,072 athletes from more than
100 nations had entered the jubilee edition of the race. The Vienna City
Marathon became the biggest running event ever seen in Austria. Around
300,000 spectators ? as many as never before ? lined the course to watch
the race.

After some great pacemaking with split times of 63:44 minutes for the first
half and 1:30:26 hours for 30 k four runners from Kenya were still in the
contest for victory: Abel Kirui, debutant Duncan Kibet, Paul Biwott and
William Rotich. It was Kirui and Kibet, the training partner of marathon
greats Martin Lel and Robert Cheruiyot, who increased the pace and broke
away. The kilometre splits were now run well under 3:00 minutes and when
Kirui opened the decisive gap at 35 k (1:45:04) he seemed to be on the way
for a time well under 2:07. "But running alone it was getting hard. I got
tired and it got very warm as well," said Abel Kirui and added: "Still I
have achieved my main goal which was the course record. And I will come
back next year to further improve."

It was Abel Kirui's first marathon victory. In Berlin he had placed second
behind Haile Gebrselassie with a personal best of 2:06:51 in 2007. Now he
clearly improved the Vienna course record which had been held by Lahoucine
Mrikik (Marocco) since 2006 with 2:08:20.

There was some upset for Tomo Morimoto. The Japanese had been regarded as
the favourite in the women's race. Having won the Vienna City Marathon two
years ago with a personal best of 2:24:33 the 24 year-old hoped to further
improve in the Austrian capital. "But it felt hard right from the beginning
and I got problems at around 17 k," Tomo Morimoto said. Defending champion
Luminita Talpos then took the lead and constantly increased it. "For me
this was no surprise. I came here to win the race and to qualify for the
Olympic team," the Romanian said. After improving her five year-old
personal best by 49 seconds she expects to gain selection for Beijing.

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