Marathon Sunday and its favorites

A few minutes ago, the big favorites for tomorrow's running competitions of the Salzburg Marathon met at a joint photo shoot in the Wyndham Grand Salzburg Conference Center. With the 16th Salzburg marathon, the Sparkasse half marathon and the Hyundai relay marathon, the starting gun will be fired on Sunday at 9:00 a.m. for three different competitions. The Hervis-10K Salzburg CityRun starts a quarter of an hour earlier, at 8:45 a.m.

Elite over the marathon distance

The big highlight of the running festival in the city of Mozart is the marathon, in which the runners from Africa are the favorites again this year. Topping the men's list of contenders are Kenyans Victor Kipchirchir (PB: 2:07:39), Rogers Kipchirchir Melly (PB: 2:13:38) and Stephen Kipngetich Katam (2:14:08). The favorite among the women is the only 21-year-old Ethiopian Gadise Gudisa Negese. With her first marathon, she wants to gain important experience for her future career here in the city of Mozart. Attention should also be paid to Julia Brugger, who comes from Germany. The athlete, who lives in Landshut, will make her marathon debut on Sunday and is aiming for a time of around 2:50 hours.

To favor a Swiss and an Austrian in the half marathon

Marco Kern, a Swiss runner, is the big target in tomorrow's men's half marathon. The 31-year-old set his personal best of 1:05:57 hours just six weeks ago in Freiburg. His aim is to beat this again here in Salzburg: "I would have set myself a target time of 1:05/1:06," says Kern. The Austrian Andreas Stöckl also wants to have a say in the top spots. He has a personal best of 1:09:17 hours from 2017. It is unlikely that he will improve on this tomorrow: "Unfortunately, due to an injury, I am not 100 percent fit. But I would like to aim for a time of around 1:14 hours," said Stöckl.

Stöckl-Moser hot potato for the Hervis-10K Salzburg CityRun

Five weeks after her first national marathon title in Linz, Salzburg's Cornelia Stöckl-Moser from SC Leogang will start the Hervis-10K Salzburg CityRun tomorrow as the favorite. After winning yesterday's women's race, her starting position for the combined ranking (women's race + Hervis-10K Salzburg CityRun) could hardly be better. "I'm feeling pretty positive about tomorrow's race. I'll take it a little slower than yesterday and listen to how my body feels," said the young Pinzgauer.

Hyundai relay marathon with a prominent line-up

For the first time since 2013, a marathon relay is on the program again this year. The Austrian Sports Aid provides two relay teams with prominent Austrian athletes - including Peter Herzog, Salzburg's currently best marathon runner. He will lead the Sporthilfe-Hyundai 1 team as starting runner.

Team Sporthilfe-Hyundai 1
Peter Herzog | Athletics | Bronze winner Team-EM 2018 in the marathon
Sabine Schöffmann | Snowboard, overall World Cup second place 2018/19
Chiara Hölzl | Jumping, Vice World Champion 2019 (Team)
Daniel Leutgeb | Judo, YOG Bronze 2018

Team Sporthilfe-Hyundai 2
Linus Heidegger Speed skating, Olympic sixth place 2018 (mass skating)
Gabriel Odor | Speed Skating, Junior World Champion 2019 (Mass Skating)
Martina Kuenz | Wrestling, Vice European Champion 2019
Arvid Auner | Snowboard, World Championship Eighth 2019 (PSL)