Bethwell Yegon from Kenya and Chala Regasa from Ethiopia lead at Vienna City Marathon on April 21st the field of elite runners. Both have recorded best times of just over 2:06 hours. The course record was set last year by Samwel Mailu and is 2:05:08.
At that time, Yegon came in second place, but in 2024 he wants to reach for victory but achieve “at least a place on the podium”. Regasa was the focus in Vienna in 2019. He was part of the team of pacemakers who supported the Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge in the Vienna Prater in his marathon under two hours (under laboratory conditions). In Vienna he is running his second marathon after his debut in Rotterdam.
With the Kenyan Felix Kibitok (2:06:28, half marathon best time 59:08) and Samsom Amare from Eritrea, who won his marathon debut in 2023 in Abu Dhabi in 2:07:10, there are other winning runners at the start who also do that Have potential for times in the area of the course record.
The field of elite runners put together by race director Mark Milde includes top athletes from more than 20 countries. Several runners want to attack the Olympic limit of 2:08:10 hours for Paris. In addition, the marathon in Vienna will host the Hungarian national marathon championships for the second time in a row. Around 40 of the best runners from the neighboring country come to Vienna.
The women’s field is led by two runners from Eritrea: Nazret Weldu and Dolshi Tesfu.