Vienna City Marathon: Records and exciting competition participants on Sunday!

Vienna City Marathon: Records and exciting competition participants on Sunday!

Wien, Österreich - Next Sunday, April 4, 2025, the 41st Vienna City Marathon (VCM) will take place, which promises a large event with around 13,000 registrations for the main line and over 45,000 participants. According to Laola1 , the marathon will start at 9 a.m. should rise.

This year the race is particularly exciting, since Aaron Gruen set up a new ÖLV record over a distance of 42.195 km last Sunday in the USA with a time of 2:09:53. This has skyrocketed the expectations, and Andreas Vojta is one of the main candidates for the best Austrian runner. Despite a non-optimal preparation, which was due to a heart skin inflammation after the Valencia Marathon 2023, Vojta hopes to achieve a time of 2:12 hours.

rivals and returnees

Another well-known participant is Lemawork Ketema, who returns on March 11, 2024 after a thigh band operation. Although he has set up a best time of 2:10:44 in the past, he does not strive for this in this competition. The two Austrian runners will receive support from half marathon such as Timon Theuer and Thomas Messner, the latter is an Austrian champion in the half marathon.

Another highlight of the VCM could represent Larissa Matz, which will compete over the 5 km and will therefore also take part in the title fights. In addition, the young ÖLV guard is represented by talents such as Lena Millonig, which the route uses as preparation for the 3,000 m obstacle. The former ÖLV record holder Eva Wutti will also be there, but with mixed expectations due to her professional stress.

look at world records and developments

The context of the current record attempts is illuminated by the global developments in the marathon run. One example is the new Kelvin Kiptum marathon world record from Kenya, which in 2023 reached a time of 2:00:35 hours at the Chicago Marathon. The previous record by Eliud Kipchoge, which ran 2:01:09 hours in Berlin in 2022, shows the rapid development in the marathon run. According to marathon.de , technological innovations, especially through modern running shoes, have contributed significantly to improve record times.

In addition, there are specific rules for the recognition of world records that ensure that both the start and target point must meet certain conditions. These rules have applied since 2004 and, among other things, require that the distance between the start and finish may not be more than 50 % of the length of the outer length.

On Thursday evening, a special event took place to get in the mood for the VCM in Schönbrunn Castle, in which Kenyan top favorites were also present. Another highlight of the marathon will be a world record attempt in the waltz dancing on the Danube Walzer music, which is scheduled for 8:35 a.m. and will take part in around 2,000 couples.