State championship title for Baierl and Gruber

Anita Baierl celebrated her first state championship title in marathon running right at her marathon debut. In a time of 2:42:35 hours she crossed the finish line at Residenzplatz as second overall behind Fatuma Usen Tayr from Ethiopia. She relegated series state champion Karin Freitag to second place in the state championships and third place overall. In the men's race, too, there was an Ethiopian victory for the first time by Temesgen Habtemariam Bekele. After three second places, Robert Gruber secured the national championship title for the first time with third place overall. The 13th Salzburg Marathon celebrated a new participant record with 7,283 runners.

Exciting women's race

Right from the start, which took place for the first time on Rudolfskai, an exciting race developed for the women. Together with the prominent pacemaker Karl Aumayr, a group of three formed with the Ethiopian Fatuma Tayr and the two favorites for the state championship title, Anita Baierl (TuS Kremsmünster) and Karin Freitag (LG Decker Itter). At the half marathon, the Tyrolean was nine seconds behind the two leaders. While the gap between the two Austrians was steadily increasing, Tayr broke away from Baierl at the beginning of the second lap. The only 20-year-old Ethiopian improved her personal best over one minute with a winning time of 2:39:15 hours and celebrated the biggest victory of her young marathon career. "I'm very happy with my new best time, it was a good race," said the young winner after the race. Upper Austrian Anita Baierl secured the state championship title in her premiere race in a time of 2:42:35 hours, Karin Freitag followed in a time of 2:44:27 hours. “I'm very satisfied, even though I didn't quite reach the time I had imagined. A special impression was the run at half the distance, the great atmosphere really motivated me. After 30 kilometers it became more and more difficult for my muscles, but I fought my way through,” commented the 27-year-old after her first race over the marathon distance and announced: “My future lies in the marathon!”

“I am satisfied with my performance. I decided to start risky to be able to run in the group with Anita. At kilometer 15 I realized that I had to cut back a bit. Because of her significantly better half marathon time, Anita was the clear favourite,” Karin Freitag commented on the race. Lower Austria's Veronika Schenk (Union Waidhofen Ybbs) completed the podium of the state championships in her marathon debut in a great time of 2:47:45 hours. As expected, the 54-year-old Sabine Hofer (LAC Salzburg) was eighth overall in a time of 3:01:52 hours and was happy about the Salzburg state championship title.

Ethiopian double victory in the men's, premiere for "perennial favorite" Robert Gruber

The men's race had a surprise in store: veteran Robert Gruber (Kolland Topsport Gaal) was unexpectedly able to match the pace of the two Ethiopians Temesgen Habtemariam Bekele and Abay Girma Tadesse, the trio completed the half marathon in a time of 1:10:21 hours. In the course of the second lap, however, the two East Africans were able to pull away before Temesgen Bekele started his solo run in the final phase of the race and crossed the finish line in a winning time of 2:23:11 hours - as the first Ethiopian winner in the history of the Salzburg Marathon. His compatriot completed the Ethiopian one-two, closely followed by “perennial favorite” Robert Gruber. In a strong time of 2:25:17 hours, the 40-year-old secured his first state championship title in marathon running after three second places in the last four years. "Today we finally got the title," sighed the man from Salzburg happily but very exhausted after crossing the finish line. "The weather was perfect, I had a good feeling during the race." They were followed by club colleague Stefan Linseder and Thomas Unger (team vegan.at), who were happy about the silver and bronze medals. Oliver Riefler (Lauftreff Nussdorf) celebrated the Salzburg state championship title. A total of seven federal states held their state championships as part of the Salzburg Marathon.