Press Release - Vienna City Marathon - 5/17/04

                                             Contact: 
                                               General information: 
                                                 Andreas Meier 
                                                 (Press Officer) 
                                                  - Tel: +43 - 650 350 1488
                                               Elite Athletes: 
                                                 Mark Milde 
                                                 (Elite Race Director) 
                                                 - Tel: +49 - 179 394 8276
                                               International Press Service:                            
                                                 Jörg Wenig 
                                                 - Tel: +49 - 170 416 7531

PRESS RELEASE

21st Vienna City Marathon:

Kenya's winner Kandie invited by President of Austria  

Ten years ago Boston Marathon winners were honoured by a reception at White 
House in Washington. Multiple winners Cosmas Ndeti (Kenya) and Uta Pippig 
(Germany) met the former President of the United States, Bill Clinton, even 
more than once and jogged with him in a park. May be the designated 
President of the Federal State of Austria remembered this gesture when he 
decided to invite the winner and the race director of the 21st Vienna City 
Marathon for tea today. 

At noontime Vienna's new course record holder Samson Kandie, who clocked 
2:08:35 despite windy conditions on Sunday, and race director Wolfgang 
Konrad were met by Heinz Fischer in the parliament of Austria. Fischer has 
just been elected as new president in a people's vote and will officially 
take over in the coming weeks. It is the first time in the history of the 
race that the winner is invited by the President of Austria. Italian 
women's winner Rosaria Console, who has surprisingly beaten favourite Lidia 
Simon in a time of 2:29:22, had been unavailable because she had to leave 
Vienna early in the morning on Monday. 

The invitation is another proof for the extraordinary  standing of the 
Vienna City Marathon as Austria's biggest international one day sporting 
event. Interest in the race is enormous. Despite the miserable weather 
conditions around 200,000 spectators lined the streets of the capital of 
Austria. Additionally interest in the TV live coverage of the ORF (Austrian 
national broadcaster) was bigger than before. 302,000 people watched the 
race on TV. That meant that 42 percent of all Austrian people watching TV 
on Sunday morning had switched on to follow  the marathon coverage.

Samson Kandie hopes to return to the Vienna City Marathon next year. The 33 
year-old said: "It would be nice to further improve the course record to a 
sub 2:08 time. I believe that if the weather is fine and you have a strong 
group of athletes running together until the later stages of the race even 
a time of sub 2:07 is possible in Vienna."