Vienna, Austria - Luke Kibet battled the rising temperatures and took the Vienna City Marathon in 2:10:07.

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. Kenyans took eight places out of the first ten. Portugal’s Luis Feiteira was the best non-Kenyan runner in eighth place with 2:13:37.

Luminita Talpos of Romania took the women’s race with 2:32:21 in temperatures above 20° Celsius at the finish. She was ahead of Ethiopian Martha Markos who improved her personal best by almost five minutes to 2:35:45. Austrian Susanne Pumper made the home crowd celebrate by taking third place with 2:37:55.

For Kibet, cautious pace en route to biggest career triumph

In the men’s race the favourites did not immediately pick up the pace of the pacemakers. Maybe at that early stage that was even luck for the organisation – for some reason there appeared to be a locked gate on the course in Prater Park. Organisers were shocked when they found out and managed to solve the situation at the very last moment. A policeman was finally able to unlock and open the barrier just seconds before the leading runners reached that point at 5-K.

Though temperatures were fine for the first part of the race the pace was not picked up. The group reached 10K in 31:10, before crossing the half-way mark in 1:05:37. That was more than 90 seconds slower than scheduled. At breakfast runners had still been talking to run the first half in 1:04.

“It was getting too warm. And additionally we watched each other,” Kibet later explained. He had been one of the big pre-race favourites.

In contrast to Kibet another could not live up to the expectations. Bernard Barmasai was starting to loose ground after 24 kilometres. The former Steeplechase World record holder, who is still 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 after 35 kilometres.

It was at that point when Kibet and his training partner Abel Kirui decided to make a move.

“We talked and agreed to go,” Kibet said. Off they went but at 37k Kibet was all on his own. “Three kilometres from the finish I knew that I would win the race”, said Kibet, who has a marathon best of 2:08:52 from Eindhoven in 2005. “I think in good conditions I could have run faster. And it remains my goal to run a marathon in 2:06 to 2:07.”

It appeared that his training in Kenya did not go too well. “For a longer time I had stomach problems during long runs. So I could only do proper marathon training for three weeks.” That indicates that Kibet, who is employed by the Kenyan prisons in Nairobi but does not have to work, is capable of more. On shorter distances he has already achieved some notable results. He has a Half-Marathon personal best of one hour even and his 1:12:52 for 25 k, which he ran in 2004, is the third fastest time of all times at that distance.

In his first proper Marathon race there was disappointment for a runner with a famous name: Falk Cierpinski, the 28-year-old son of  the German double Olympic marathon champion Waldemar Cierpinski, came in 18th with 2:21:26. He clearly missed his goal of a sub 2:17 after running well until the final 10k.

Near gun-to-tape win for Talpos

In contrast to the men’s race the women’s event was a one woman affair: Luminita Talpos took the lead right from the start and was never really challenged on her way to her first Marathon victory. It was after the withdrawal of the defending champion Tomo Morimoto of Japan, due to injury, that the Romanian appeared to be the clear favourite.

The 34 year-old passed half way in 1:14:23 and was already more than a minute ahead of 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,” Talpos said. She will now prepare for the World Championships Marathon in Osaka.

Organisers of the Vienna City Marathon registered a record 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.

“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.

Jörg Wenig for the IAAF