Strong international women's field for Vienna City Marathon
Vibian Chepkirui will return to the Vienna City Marathon on 6th April aiming to make it three victories out of three starts. The 30 year-old Kenyan produced two extraordinary performances in the Austrian capital in 2021 and 2022: First she won her debut marathon, then she broke the course record with 2:20:59. This mark still stands and could well be attacked on 6th April. There are three more Kenyan women on the current start list who might run such a pace.
The Vienna City Marathon, which is Austria’s major road running event and a World Athletics Elite Label Race, will significantly exceed the previous record of 11,000 registrations. Adding races at shorter distances there will be more than 40,000 athletes competing in Vienna during the first weekend of April. “We are witnessing a running boom in the whole of Europe and for us in Vienna it is great to see that many young people and women take up running and enter our events,“ said Dominik Konrad, who is the joint General Manager of the Vienna City Marathon together with Kathrin Widu. “We are really happy that we have a record entry in the marathon since this is of course the heartbeat of our whole event,“ said Kathrin Widu.
Running her marathon debut back in 2021 Vibian Chepkirui unexpectedly dominated the Vienna City Marathon. Up against a strong field with half a dozen runners featuring personal bests in the 2:20 to 2:26 range she ran away from the favourites well before the 30k mark and won in 2:24:29. In the following year Chepkirui smashed the course record with 2:20:59 which remains her personal best. She probably was in shape for an even faster time, but her pacemaker suffered of problems. “Next year I want to come back to Vienna and my goal will be to run 2:18,“ she boldly stated after her second victory in her second marathon. However it took a bit longer before she now finally will come back to the Vienna City Marathon to attack both, the course record and her personal record.
Three fellow-Kenyans might well challenge Vibian Chepkirui on her way to a third Vienna victory. Rebbeca Tanui also knows the Vienna City Marathon very well. The Kenyan was fourth here in 2023 after winning her debut marathon in San Sebastián in 2022 with a fine 2:23:09. A year ago Tanui took third in Vienna and then won the Kosice Marathon with a fine course record of 2:21:08. If the 32 year-old can build on that form she could well add the Vienna course record to her success list.
Catherine Cherotich had a breakthrough year in 2024. The 30 year-old Kenyan improved her marathon PB by almost 16 minutes when she took fourth place in Frankfurt with 2:22:42 in October. Another Kenyan to watch will be Faith Chepkoech. The 26 year-old came almost out of nowhere when she ran what was only her second international race and the first outside Africa at last year’s Vienna City Marathon. Chepkoech finished in a brilliant second position with 2:26:22, improving by over 16 minutes. After finishing seventh in the Cape Town Marathon last autumn in 2:28:00 she has since focused on coming back to the Vienna City Marathon.
As in the past couple of years the Vienna City Marathon will include the Hungarian Marathon Championships. While national record holder Nora Szabo will be the big favourite for the women’s title she might well achieve a top overall position as well. The 36 year-old improved to a fine 2:25:52 at last year’s Valencia Marathon.
