Press Release - Vienna City Marathon - 9/12/21

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
                      38th Vienna City Marathon:                  
Leonard Langat wins Vienna after Derara Hurisa disqualified for wrong shoes

The Vienna City Marathon produced two breaking news of completely different 
content on Sunday and none of them was about records: The race became the 
first major marathon worldwide with a strong international elite field and 
a mass race since the start of the Corona pandemic and then ended with a 
disqualification of the runner who crossed the line first. Ethiopia's 
Derara Hurisa wore shoes which are not compliant with the rules. While it 
is the first time that such a disqualification happened in a major marathon 
Kenyan Leonard Langat became the winner with a time of 2:09:25. A debutant 
was the surprise winner of the women's race: Kenyan Vibian Chepkirui ran 
2:24:29. On a day when temperatures reached around 25 Celsius during the 
final part of the race hopes of records faded during the second half of the 
marathon. 

In total organisers registered around 26,000 entries from 126 nations for 
the various events. 6,000 of them were marathon runners. Some of the events 
were already staged on Saturday. In a 10k race Julia Mayer smashed the 
national record with a time of 32:54, becoming the first Austrian woman to 
break 33:00 minutes. Andreas Vojta took the men's race. The Austrian 
improved his personal best to 29:03. The Vienna City Marathon is a Label 
Road Race of the international athletics federation World Athletics. 

Less than 45 minutes after breaking the finishing tape in the heart of 
Vienna in 2:09:22 Derara Hurisa looked completely distraught, sitting on 
the pavement in the finishing area between Vienna's Burgtheater and the 
impressive town hall. He had just learnt that he was disqualified because 
the soles of his shoes were one centimeter thicker than allowed. The soles 
of road running shoes have to be no thicker than four centimeters. Hurisa 
was running with a model that has a sole thickness of five centimeters. He 
is said to have chosen the shoes for the race because he used them in 
training and thought they were within the rules. 

Organizers explained that every runner or their manager had to fill in a 
form in which they have to name the model of the shoe they were going to 
wear. On Hurisa's form a shoe was named that is within the rules. For some 
reasons on race day he wore a different one. "We also stressed in the 
technical meeting the rules about the shoes. Unfortunately we had no other 
choice than disqualifying the athlete," said Hannes Langer, who is one of 
the elite race coordinators of the Vienna City Marathon. "It is the first 
time something like this has happened. And I am pretty sure that from now 
on there will be some form of checks to avoid something like this to happen 
again in a major race."

"Of course I would have preferred to have broken the tape," said Leonard 
Langat, who became the winner and clocked sub 2:10 for the first time. "I 
had no clue about the disqualification until they told me. It was of course 
my aim to win and I thank god that in the end I did. It was a good race, 
but the heat was a problem." While the leading group had passed the half 
marathon in 63:41 the 30 k split of 1:30:33 still pointed towards a 
finishing time of around 2:07:30. However when the last pacemaker dropped 
out at 30 k the race became much slower and tactical. 

Once Japan's Kento Kukutani, who came from behind, had reached the leading 
group with Kenyans Leonard Langat and Samwel Kiptoo plus Ethiopians Betesfa 
Getahun and Derara Hurisa the pace was increased again. Kukutani and Kiptoo 
were quickly dropped while the other three battled for victory. Hurisa had 
the best sprint, but with illegal shoes. So it was Leonard Lagat who became 
Vienna's champion.

The women's leaders were running well inside the course record of 2:22:12 
for long parts of the race. Vibian Chepkirui and the Ethiopians Meseret 
Dinke and Gelete Burka passed the half way mark in 70:47. Burka had 
recovered from a fall earlier in the race when she stumbled at a zebra 
crossing where a section was slightly elevated. However neither she nor 
Dinke was able to hold on to Chepkirui. At the 30 k mark the Kenyan's split 
time was 1:40:37 and she was already 33 seconds ahead of Dinke with Burka 
another 20 seconds back. Although Vibian Chepkirui slowed in the final 
section her victory was never in doubt as the gaps behind her grew. 
"Without the heat I would have run at least two minutes faster," said the 
27 year-old. She finished with 2:24:29 and was well ahead of the Ethiopians 
Meseret Dinke and Gelete Burka who clocked 2:25:31 and 2:25:38 
respectively. Little over a month after a superb 12th place finish in the 
Olympic marathon Fabienne Schlumpf of Switzerland was fourth in 2:26:31.


Results, Men:
1. Leonard Langat  KEN 2:09:25
2. Betesfa Getahun ETH 2:09:42
3. Edwin Kosgei    KEN 2:10:10
4. Kento Kikutani  JPN 2:10:37
5. Samwel Kiptoo   KEN 2:11:16
6. Tadesse Abraham SUI 2:12:26
7. Yuta Koyama     JPN 2:17:20
8. Edwin Kangogo   KEN 2:17:37
 
Women:
1. Vibian Chepkirui       KEN 2:24:29
2. Meseret Dinke          ETH 2:25:31
3. Gelete Burka           ETH 2:25:38
4. Fabienne Schlumpf      SUI 2:26:31
5. Lucy Cheruiyot         KEN 2:27:47
6. Celestine Chepchirchir KEN 2:28:49

 
More information is available at:  www.vienna-marathon.com
 
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