Rutto, Szabo triumph in city of Mozart

Rutto led an all-Kenyan podium in Mozart’s hometown with his compatriots Samuel Kamau-Njeri in 2:23:19 and Abraham Kipchirchir-Limo in 2:25:53 in second and third place.

The women’s race produced a dramatic finish. Tünde Szabo came from behind to storm past long-time leader Pamela Chemurgor-Talam with only 400 metres to go to the finish at Mirabellplatz. A visibly exhausted Chemurgor finished second in 2:55:14 ahead of Tatiana Mitkina, a Russian who lives in Germany, in 2:56:49.

In total 6,457 runners from 70 countries had registered for one of the running events at the weekend, 998 of them for the full marathon. Temperatures of 11°C and dry conditions in the first 2:45 hours of the race provided favourable circumstances while the wind was a challenging factor in parts of the course. The Salzburg Marathon has been certified as a 5-star quality road race by European Athletics.

“I am very happy about my second marathon victory,” said winner Hosea Kiprotich-Rutto, who had already triumphed at Pune Marathon in India on 29 January earlier this year. The Kenyan trio passed halfway in 1:06:34–1:06:37. When the pace slowed down a bit, 25-year-old Rutto made his move. “I started to push at 30k and dropped the others. I felt good and enjoyed the great atmosphere of the race.”

The women’s pre-race favourite Pamela Chemurgor-Talam seemed to live up to the expectations. She went into the lead right from the start and covered the first half in 1:17:26. At that point she was almost six minutes faster than Tünde Szabo who ran her race in second position. Chemurgor suffered badly in the final stages of her first marathon outside Kenya. Szabo came closer and closer. The 28 year old marathon Olympian at Rio 2016 edged the leading Kenyan on the final stretch and celebrated another marathon victory after having won the marathons in Verona 2016 as well as in Cluj and Radenci 2014.

Half marathon wins went to Filmon Abraham, a runner from Eritrea based in Germany, in 1:06:34 in his debut at the distance and Austrian Conny Köpper in 1:22:54. The 10k race was dominated by Mustafe Abdilaahi in 32:07, a Somalian who has lived in Salzburg since 2014. Marika Rubino from Italy won the female category in 39:24.