Press Release - Vienna City Marathon - 4/27/08

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

          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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