Press Release - Vienna City Marathon - 4/11/14

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
                    Vienna City Marathon on Sunday: 
          Sugut and Feleke Lead Field of 13 Sub 2:10 Runners

With 13 men featuring personal bests of sub 2:10 the 31st Vienna City 
Marathon will see its best elite field in the history of the race. 
Regarding this mark the only spring marathon that surpasses Vienna will be 
the Boston Marathon on 21st April. Among those athletes there will be the 
defending champion and three time winner Henry Sugut of Kenya and Getu 
Feleke. With a personal best of 2:04:50 the Ethiopian is the fastest runner 
ever entered into the Vienna City Marathon. Sugut is the course record 
holder with 2:06:58. Including shorter running event staged on Sunday 
organisers registered a record total of around 42,000 athletes for the 31st 
edition, which is an IAAF Gold Label Road Race. 

A live stream of the race will be shown on www.vienna-marathon.com on 
Sunday. Additionally there will be English live web reporting available. 
The race starts at 9 am Central European Time.

For Henry Sugut Vienna is already some sort of second home. He won the race 
in 2010, 2012 and 2013. The 28 year-old established the present course 
record of 2:06:58 two years ago. This is also his personal best. "Yes, you 
could say that Vienna is almost my living room," he replied during the 
press conference. "It is a big motivation to have the chance to win the 
race for the fourth time. I want to make history in Austria," said Sugut, 
who could become the only runner in the history of the race to achieve four 
victories. 

"My training has gone very well and I am ready. I think I am able to break 
my personal best on Sunday. The weather forecast sounds ideal for me," said 
Sugut. Overcast skies and temperatures between 13 and 16 Celsius with 
little wind are forecasted. Sugut lives in Eldoret but he does most of his 
training in Kaptabet. "Among my training partners is Geoffrey Kipsang. The 
fact that he won the World Half Marathon Championships recently is a good 
sign and a motivation for me. We help each other in training," explained 
Sugut. 

"For me the most diffcilut part during the race is always when the 
pacemakers drop out," said Sugut. Half way pace is planned for 63:00 
minutes and pacemakers are supposed to continue until the 30 k mark. "It 
then depends on how my body feels. If it is possible I will attack and try 
to run away." 

Asked about the long standing rivalry between Kenyan and Ethiopian distance 
runners Sugut explained: "Generally we are friends. But at a certain stage 
during the race everone becomes an enemy. We will support each other. But 
from the 30 k mark onwards the fun is over!" Ethiopia's Getu Feleke agreed 
with this view. The toughest challenge for Sugut might well come from him 
on Sunday: 

Feleke's marathon career started in Vienna five years ago. In a unique 
debutants' only race he finished seventh with 2:11:47. "For me that was a 
good race for a start. I had no knowledge about the marathon before," said 
Feleke, who significantly improved in the following years. In April 2012 he 
was second in Rotterdam with 2:04:50. "I was not fast enough on the final 
two kilometres, otherwise I could have won in Rotterdam," said Feleke, who 
runs up to 280 kilometres per week in training in Addis Abeba. Coached by 
Getaneh Tessema among his training partners is Tsegaye Kebede, who will run 
in London on Sunday. A year ago Feleke took another second place in 
Rotterdam. In warm weather conditions he finished with 2:06:45. He might 
have to run faster to take victory in Vienna on Sunday. 

Main contenders for the Vienna City Marathon:
Getu Feleke          ETH 2:04:50
Philip Kimutai       KEN 2:06:07
Henry Sugut          KEN 2:06:58
John Kiprotich       KEN 2:07:08
Alfred Kering        KEN 2:07:11
Moses Kigen          KEN 2:07:45
Duncan Koech         KEN 2:07:53
Geoffrey Ndungu      KEN 2:08:35
Ryo Yamamoto         JPN 2:08:44
Maswai Kiptanui      KEN 2:08:53
Oleksandr Sitkovskyy UKR 2:09:14
Felix Kiprotich      KEN 2:09:43
Aleksey Reunkov      RUS 2:09:54
Wilfred Kirwa Kigen  KEN no mark

For more information please visit: www.vienna-marathon.com

                                   ###