Press Release - Vienna City Marathon - 4/13/15

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

     Sisay Lemma targets a Vienna return and qualification for Rio

After celebrating his biggest triumph so far Sisay Lemma revealed that he 
only started training at the age of 17 and did so barefoot at first. 
Running alone for more than 15 k the Ethiopian braved windy conditions to 
take the Vienna City Marathon in 2:07:31 on Sunday. His next major target 
will be qualification for the Rio Olympic marathon 2016.

Sisay Lemma grew up in the village Chacki which is in the Oromia region, 
where a large number of world-class runners come from - among them Kenenisa 
Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba. "I heard about them when I was at school and of 
course I knew about Haile Gebrselassie. However I had no ambitions myself 
at that time to become a runner," said Sisay Lemma, who grew up on his 
parents' farm in high altitude of 3,000 metres. "I have three sisters, but 
they are not running." 

"I concentrated on school first and had to help my parents with farm work. 
So I had 14 hour days. I did not do any sports," recalls Sisay Lemma, who 
finally started running and training at the age of 17 when he was still in 
high school. "For the first two or three months I had no shoes, so I ran 
barefoot on the grass. It was no problem, but it changes your running 
style." 

Two-time 1,500 m World Indoor Champion Deresse Mekonnen was among his 
neighbours and he went to the same school. This was the runner who gave 
Sisay Lemma some inspiration. His first races came at the age of 19 and he 
then moved to Addis Abeba when he was 21. In the same year in 2012 he won 
the Carpi Marathon in Italy with a debut time of 2:11:58. 

Sisay Lemma, who is coached by Mohamed Kila and has none of the many 
prominent Ethiopian marathon runners in his group, then also took the 
Warsaw Marathon in 2013, improving to 2:09:02. In a high-class Dubai 
Marathon this January Lemma achieved a fine fifth place with 2:07:06. "I am 
in even better shape now than before Dubai," he said two days before the 
Vienna City Marathon. He proofed that on Sunday with victory in 2:07:31. 
"Without the wind and with more competition I could have run 2:05. It was 
my aim to break the course record of 2:05:41," said Sisay Lemma and added: 
"I would really like to come back next year and try it again, because it 
was a great race on a great course and the support of the people was 
amazing." The next Vienna City Marathon is on 10th April 2016 - a date 
marked in Sisay Lemma's diary.

With some of the prize money he earns from road racing Sisay Lemma supports 
his nephew. "He started running a little bit back home, but now he lives 
with me in Addis Abeba. He goes to high school and for now concentrates on 
education. Once he finished school he will go back to Chacki and start 
training properly. If he does well he could return to Addis to join me," 
explained the Vienna City Marathon champion.

Sisay Lemma will now target a fast autumn marathon. Most likely he will 
either run Berlin in September or Frankfurt in October. The 24 year-old has 
high ambitions: "I want to make the Rio Olympic team." 

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