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Vienna City Marathon preview - TheEd - 20-02-2008
This yearâââ‰â¢s Vienna City Marathon will mark a special occasion: When the race will be started on 27th April a couple of hundred thousands of spectators will witness a jubilee event in the capital. It will be the 25th edition of Austriaâââ‰â¢s biggest and most prestigious road race. This is one reason why entry figures are soaring. So far about 9,000 runners have registered for the race, which includes a half marathon, a relay event plus three races for juniors and children. Another reason for the growing popularity of the Vienna City Marathon is that the event has established itself as a major international marathon. The elite fields in recent years were much stronger than before. Additionally the race can offer a unique combination of sports and culture: ,Run Vienna âââ‰â¬Å Enjoy Classicâââ‰â¢ is the motto of the Vienna City Marathon.
When the first edition of the race was started on 25th March 1984 organisers were proud to register 794 finishers at the Heldenplatz, which is still the site of the spectacular finish today. ââ∠âWe will see times in the future when we will have ten times as many participants,âââ¬Ã said Helmut Zilk after he had started the first race 24 years ago. At that time the words of the Austrian minister for education and art may have sounded a bit exaggerated. But the development of the Vienna City Marathon proved that the minister was right.
There was a difficult period though: After a couple of years enthusiasm for Austriaâââ‰â¢s first big city marathon seemed to get lost with entry numbers stagnating. It was then in 1989 when former steeple chaser Wolfgang Konrad took over as race director. Konrad, who at that time was the Austrian steeple record holder (8:17.22 minutes) and a prominent athlete, guided the race into a prosperous future. This yearâââ‰â¢s event will also mark a personal jubilee for Konrad, because it will be his 20th Vienna City Marathon in charge as race director. In 1995 his race was the first one which used chip timing for the entire field of runners. Five years later Konrad started another technical innovation, which became very popular in many races worldwide: The sending of text messages with finishing times.
full story - Vienna Marathon 2008 preview