Austrian Andrea Mayr takes home victory in Vienna city marathon with new national record while Günther Weidlinger falls short of improving the national mark

April 20, 2009

In a real unique marathon in Vienna, Kenya’s Gilbert Kipruto Kirwa and Austria’s Andrea Mayr were the winners of an interesting race. The special thing about the race was, that the whole elite field consisted of marathon debutants only!

23 year-old Kirwa took the race with a fine 2:08:21h ahead of Ethiopia’s Dereje Debele Tulu (2:09:08h) and Joseph Maregu (Kenya/ 2:09:25h). Despite the fact that the elite field consisted of rookies only, 4 men went sub 2:10. Never before in the history of the Vienna City marathon the results were so good.
Austrian hope and former steeplechaser Günther Weidlinger, ran an encouraging debut in Vienna. But in the end he was unlucky, because he missed the 23-year old Austrian record by just 17 seconds. Weidlinger finished in ninth with 2:12:39. “I was well in time for the record for a long time, but the final two kilometres really killed me. I could not run any more. To finish ninth is okay for me, but I am disappointed to have missed the record,” was his comment.

Surprisingly the womens race was throughoutly dominated by Andrea Mayr. The two time winner of the World Mountain Running Trophy also set a new Austrian record, clocking a 2:30:43h. Not bad for a debut!

Lead results were as follows:

marathon men:
1. Gilbert Kipruto Kirwa KEN 2:08:21
2. Dereje Debele Tulu ETH 2:09:08
3. Joseph Maregu KEN 2:08:25
4. Degefa Abebe Negewo ETH 2:09:52
5. Mohamed El-Hachimi MAR 2:10:24
6. Jafred Chirchir KEN 2:10:42
7. Getu Fekele ETH 2:11:42
8. Pedro Nimo Del-Oro ESP 2:12:10
9. Günther Weidlinger AUT 2:12:39
10. Maswai Kiptanui KEN 2:13:25

marathon women:
1. Andrea Mayr AUT 2:30:43
2. Derbe-Godana Gebissa ETH 2:31:31
3. Hayato-Zeineba Hasso ETH 2:34:01
4. Tiruwork Mekonnen ETH 2:34:07
5. Olga Kalenarova-Ochal UKR 2:35:25
6. Esther Muthuku KEN 2.39:22