Posted: April 29, 2007

Athletics: Luke Kibet and Luminita Talpos win warm Vienna City Marathon

Luke Kibet battled the rising temperatures and took the Vienna City Marathon with 2:10:07 this Sunday. The 24 year-old Kenyan celebrated the biggest triumph of his career in the Austrian capital. In his marathon debut James Mwangi clocked 2:10:27 for second place while another Kenyan, Abel Kirui, was third with 2:10:41. Luminita Talpos (Romania) was the women’s winner with 2:32:21 in temperatures above 20° Celsius at the finish. She was ahead of Martha Markos (Ethiopia), who improved her personal best by almost five minutes to 2:35:45. Susanne Pumper (Austria) made the home crowd celebrate by taking third place with 2:37:55. Organisers of the Vienna City Marathon registered a record number of 26,279 runners from 80 nations. That includes shorter races which where included in the marathon event. About 250,000 spectators lined the streets of Vienna to cheer on the runners. The men’s leading group passed half way in 65:37 minutes, which was slower than originally planned. “It was getting too warm. And additionally we watched each other”, Luke Kibet later explained. He had been one of the big favourites beforehand. In contrast to Kibet another one could not live up to the expectations: Bernard Barmasai was starting to loose ground after 24 k. The former steeple chase world record holder, who still is the third fastest of all times with his 7:55,72 minutes from 1997, was hoping for his first marathon victory in Vienna. But he dropped out at 35 k. “Three kilometres from the finish I knew that I would win the race”, Luke Kibet said, after leaving behind Abel Kirui at 37K. Luminita Talpos took the women’s lead right from the start and was never really challenged on her way to her first marathon victory. The 34 year-old passed half way in 1:14:23 and already was more than a minute ahead of Martha Markos. “I am happy to have finally won a big marathon, though I did not quite reach the time I wanted to run. Judging the organisation of the race this is the best one I have ever run in”, said Luminita Talpos. She will now prepare for running the World Championship’s marathon in Osaka. “We are happy with our event, though we did not quite reach the winning times we hoped to get. But there was a superb atmosphere on the course”, said race director Wolfgang Konrad. For more information please visit: www.vienna-marathon.com. Luke Kibet winning the Vienna City Marathon - Photo: www.photorun.net