Press Release - Vienna City Marathon - 1/21/13

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

               Haile Gebrselassie Targets Hat Trick in Vienna

Haile Gebrselassie goes for a Vienna hat trick. One of the greatest 
athletes of all times will come back to the Austrian capital and compete in 
the half marathon, which will be staged parallel to the Vienna City 
Marathon on 14th April. The 39 year-old Ethiopian has won the OMV Champions 
Race in the past two years and now intends to add a third win plus possibly 
attack his own course record. 

The marathon and the half marathon, which are the two main events, have 
already reached the respective entry limits but organisers are looking to 
expand the capacity to make some more places available. Adding other races 
organisers expect a record total of more than 36,000 runners to compete on 
14th April. The Vienna City Marathon, which will see its 30th edition, is 
an IAAF Gold Label Race.

"We could not have hoped for a better ambassador for our jubilee race than 
Haile Gebrselassie. He loves Vienna's spectators – and I believe the same 
applies the other way round. Haile Gebrselassie still is the most thrilling 
personality in running worldwide. We are very proud that he again chose to 
run in Vienna," said Race Director Wolfgang Konrad. There are only very few 
road races in the world, where Haile Gebrselassie has competed three times 
in a row. Besides Vienna the marathons of Berlin and Dubai plus the 
Manchester 10 k race are among them.
 
The two-time Olympic 10,000 m champion had come to Vienna for the first 
time in 2011. He then established the present half marathon course record 
of 60:18. A year ago Haile Gebrselassie competed again in the OMV Half 
Marathon. This time he ran a chase race against Britain's world marathon 
record holder Paula Radcliffe, who had been given a head-start of several 
minutes. Since Radcliffe had not been fully fit she was overtaken by 
Gebrselassie relatively early. The Ethiopian clocked 60:52 minutes at his 
second victory in Vienna. Other competitors for this year's race will be 
announced at a later stage. 

                                   ###