Japhet Kosgei, Samson Kandie, Florence Barsosio, Josiah Thugwane, Boniface Usisivu (© Florian Batschi / Vienna City Marathon)
The 22nd edition of the Vienna City Marathon will see the greatest field ever assembled for this race. There are eight men with personal bests of sub 2:10, four of whom are faster than 2:08.
Among them is the defending champion Samson Kandie. The Kenyan broke the course record last year, clocking 2.08.35, and for the first time an Olympic Champion will run in Vienna: South Africa’s Josiah Thugwane, the 1996 Atlanta gold medallist.
About 20,000 runners are expected to take part in different events on Sunday, and the Marathon will once again be Austria’s biggest sports event in the summer season. It will be broadcasted live on the national TV programme ORF. During the last few year’s the coverage was seen by an average of 300,000 viewers.
“I hope that the great potential of our elite runners can be transformed into some very good results on Sunday. So I hope the temperatures will not get too warm”, the elite race director Mark Milde said. At present temperatures of around 25 ° Celsius are forecasted for Sunday.
It is planned that the pacemakers will cover the first half in about 64 minutes, which could well mean that Kandie has to run quicker than his course record to have a chance of defending his title. Vincent Kipsos (Kenya), who clocked 2:06:52 for third place in Berlin in 2002, Japhet Kosgei (Kenya), who won the Rotterdam Marathon with 2:07:09 in 1999, Josiah Thugwane (South Africa/2:07:28), the Olympic Marathon Champion of 1996, Boniface Usisivu (Kenya/2:07:50) and Tereje Wodajo (Ehtiopia/2:08:11) have all run faster than last year’s winner.
But Samson Kandie, 34, is optimistic: “I had some problems in the second half of the race last year. But now I am fit for Vienna. I hope for a fast race and I am prepared for it.”
Additionally in yesterday’s press conference he revealed the name of his baby daughter who was born just a couple of days after he had won last year’s race: “Her name is Vienna. So I will never forget the Vienna City Marathon.”
After a break of one year from running, Japhet Kosgei wants to prove that he still is a top marathon runner. The 36 year-old has won three marathons in sub 2:08 times: Rotterdam (1999), Tokyo (2000) and Otsu (2003). “I was then feeling very tired and found it hard to do long training runs. So I took a long break. But now I am fine again, and I have trained well for Vienna”, Kosgei said.
In the women’s race the focus will be mainly on one athlete: Florence Barsosio. The Kenyan was second in Paris on 10 April. “I was not satisfied with the race and with my time of 2.27.18 – so I have decided to try to do better in Vienna.”
Jörg Wenig for the IAAF
