Kirwa and Mayr win Vienna City Marathon
20.04.2009 World
Kenya’s Gilbert Kirwa and Austria’s Andrea Mayr were the winner in the unique debutants only race at the Vienna City Marathon.
23 year-old Kirwa took the race with a fine 2:08:21 in warm conditions while Ethiopia’s Dereje Debele Tulu was second in 2:09:08 and Joseph Maregu (Kenya) took third with 2:09:25. With Degefa Abebe Negewo (Ethiopia) running 2:09:52 it was the first time in the history of the Vienna City Marathon that the first four runners clocked sub 2:10 times – and this despite the fact that there were only debutants in the elite fields.
Andrea Mayr wrote Austrian athletics history by becoming only the second national women’s winner of the race and addionally breaking the Austrian marathon record in her debut race. The 29 year-old clocked 2:30:43 to beat Ethiopians Derbe-Godana Gebissa (2:31:31) and Hayato-Zeineba Hasso (2:34:01). Andrea Mayr improved the national record from Eva-Maria Gradwohl (2:30:51 in 2008) by eight seconds. In contrast to her Günther Weidlinger just missed the Austrian best time by 17 seconds. He finished ninth with 2:12:39. Including shorter races 29,054 runners from 100 nations had entered the 26th Vienna City Marathon. Organizers are informing in a release.
|
