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A year ago Luke Kibet celebrated a victory which had been the biggest in his career so far. The Kenyan won then Vienna City Marathon. Then he famously took the gold medal in the world championships’ marathon in Osaka. For tomorrow’s 25th edition of the Vienna City marathon Luke Kibet is not on the start list. None the less the winner could still be Kibet. It would be a certain surprise but it would not come totally out of the blue.
29 year-old Duncan Kibet will run his marathon debut. But it is not only his promising personal best at the half marathon (60:22) which makes him a contender for victory in Vienna’s jubilee race. It is more that he belongs to the group of the Italian manager Dr. Gabriele Rosa. So Duncan Kibet’s training partners in the built-up to Vienna were for example Martin Lel and Robert Cheruiyot. Lel took the London Marathon while Cheruiyot triumphed in Boston on Monday. “I have trained with Martin and Robert all the time,” says Duncan Kibet and adds: “In the long training runs I was not far behind them. When Martin went to London I still could train for another two weeks.”
Duncan Kibet, who is a football fan and wore a Ronaldo jersey from Manchester United on his first day in Vienna, did much of his training in Namibia. That was where Dr. Rosa brought his runners to because of the dangerous situation in Kenya after the elections. “We were 18 runners. We went to Namibia in early February and stayed there until the beginning of April. The terrain was quite hilly but the training with the others was very good for me,” says Duncan Kibet who comes from Eldoret. Usually they ran 25 k in the morning and then another 10 to 15 k in the evening. “We did this daily. So I expect to do well in Vienna.”
Known as a frontrunner Duncan Kibet knows that he has to find a much more conservative way running the marathon. “Robert and Martin told me that it would be the biggest mistake I could make if I run the marathon from the front. So I will follow their advice and follow the leaders in the race.”
Asked why he did not run his marathon debut earlier Duncan Kibet explained that he started running seriously relatively late. “That was because I had broken my left leg in a car accident back in 1994.” It was in 2003 in Eldoret when Wilson Kiprotich brought him to the training group of Dr. Rosa. “Before I had been running in some races in France for two years. But from 2003, when I was 25 years old, I really trained seriously.” For Duncan Kibet the Vienna City Marathon could be the start to a great marathon career.
Up to 30,000 runners from more than 100 nations are expected to take part in the jubilee edition of the Vienna City Marathon.
For more information please visit: www.vienna-marathon.com.
Duncan Kibet and Abel Kirui (right). Kirui, who has clocked 2:06:51 in last year’s Berlin Marathon is seen as the favourite. Photo:Victah Sailer / PhotoRun.net
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