Press Release - Vienna City Marathon - 4/13/23

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
                    Vienna City Marathon on 23rd April:            

            Moen and Jepkesho head Vienna's jubilee start lists

Fine elite fields have been assembled for the Vienna City Marathon, which 
will be staged for the 40th time on 23rd April. Norway's Sondre Moen and 
Visiline Jepkesho of Kenya head the start lists of the jubilee edition. The 
Vienna City Marathon is Austria's biggest one-day sporting event and the 
only road race in the country that features a World Athletics Elite Label. 
Including races at shorter distances organisers have now registered more 
than 38,000 entries. Over 9,000 of them will run the classic distance.

The men's field includes eleven athletes with personal bests of sub 2:10. 
While Sondre Moen features the fastest personal best with a time of 2.05:48 
the Norwegian former European record holder will concentrate on running a 
solid sub 2:10 race to come back from a less successful period. Therefore 
Abdi Fufa and Bethwel Yegon, who have both been added to the field in 
recent days, as well as Samwel Mailu and Titus Kimutai are more likely 
regarded as favorites. 

Ethiopia's Fufa has a PB of 2:05:57 from 2021 and knows the Vienna City 
Marathon well. He placed tenth here a year ago with 2:10:32. Bethwel Yegon 
is the fastest Kenyan on the start list and is said to be in fine form. He 
ran 2:06:14 in 2021 when he surprised with a second place in Berlin. Samwel 
Mailu looks well placed for a personal best. The Kenyan ran 2:07:19 in 
Frankfurt for the runner-up position last October. It was an unexpected 
marathon debut by Mailu since he was originally entered as a pacemaker. 
Fellow-Kenyan Titus Kimutai ran his marathon debut last autumn as well. He 
clocked 2:08:31 and was seventh in Linz, Austria. Germany's Sebastian 
Hendel is among those athletes looking to break 2:10 for the first time. 
Andreas Vojta of Austria might also target such a result. 

Kenya's Charles Ndiema and Ser-Od Bat-Ochir of Mongolia as well as 
Ethiopia's women only 5k world record holder Senbere Teferi had to withdraw 
from the race recently. However the women's elite field of the Vienna City 
Marathon looks strong. Ten athletes have personal bests of sub 2:30 and 
four of them have already run faster than 2:23:30. 

The former Paris and Rotterdam Marathon champion Visiline Jepkesho is the 
fastest woman in the field with a PB of 2:21:37. It looks likely that a 
Kenyan women will win the Vienna City Marathon for a sixth time in a row 
since the next couple of athletes on the entry list are also from Kenya. 
Magdalyne Masai (PB: 2:22:16), Rebecca Tanui (2:23:09) and Agnes Keino 
(2:23:26) should be among the contenders in Vienna. Fellow-Kenyan Caroline 
Jepchirchir hopes to improve her PB of 2:26:11 and could be among the top 
finishers. Poland's Angelika Mach and Branna MacDougall of Canada are the 
fastest non-African runners on the list with PBs of 2:27:48 and 2:28:36 
respectively. Julia Mayer of Austria is expected to perform well and might 
achieve a time of around 2:30:00.

Elite runners with personal bests

MEN:
Sondre Moen       NOR 2:05:48
Abdi Fufa         ETH 2:05:57
Bethwel Yegon     KEN 2:06:14
Elias Kemboi      KEN 2:07:04
Samwel Mailu      KEN 2:07:19
Titus Kimutai     KEN 2:08:31
Joshua Kogo       KEN 2:09:09
Weldu Negash      ERI 2:09:14
Felicien Muhitira RWA 2:09:18
Abe Gashahun      ETH 2:09:25
Joel Melly        KEN 2:09:45
Sebastian Hendel  GER 2:10:37
Kamil Jastrzebski POL 2:11:08
Sibusiso Nzima    RSA 2:11:43
Dominic Letting   KEN 2:12:03
Josphat Bett      KEN 2:13:59
Marcus Schöfisch  GER 2:15:05
Andreas Vojta     AUT 2:23:21
Elvis Cheboi      KEN Debut
Yakoub Labquira   MAR Debut

WOMEN:
Visiline Jepkesho    KEN 2:21:37
Magdalyne Masai      KEN 2:22:16
Rebecca Tanui        KEN 2:23:09
Agnes Keino          KEN 2:23:26
Caroline Jepchirchir KEN 2:26:11
Gadise Mulu          ETH 2:26:20
Angelika Mach        POL 2:27:48
Nuriet Shimels       ETH 2:27:58
Viola Yator          KEN 2:28:11
Branna MacDougall    CAN 2:28:36
Cavaline Nahimana    BDI 2:30:09
Eva Wutti            AUT 2:30:43
Sasha Gollish        CAN 2:31:40
Valdilene Silva      BRA 2:32:01
Julia Mayer          AUT 2:46:35

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

                                    ###