Sabrina Mockenhaupt wins the 21st Austrian Women’s Run

Submitted by editor on 20 May 2008 - 6:26pm

The winner of the 21st Austrian Women’s Run is – for the third time - Sabrina Mockenhaupt (GER).

The 27 year old German, who was the fastest woman in 2005 and 2007 too, was the top favourite for the race again and won the 5k elite run in 15:57,6 min.

Unfortunately she missed her big goal of breaking the course record of 15:35,9 that was set by Krisztina Papp (HUN) in 2006.

She was not happy with her performance: "I am angry at myself, because I was too motivated and started far to fast. The humid weather also played a role, so I was far from touching the course record."

Nathalie de Vos (BEL), the fastest female European over 10.000m in 2007, crossed the finish line as second (16:08,1) and had to agree with Mockenhaupt: "We ran the first kilometer too fast, which was a mistake under these weather conditions" They will also be competing at the Olympic Games in Beijing in August over 10.000m.

Victoria Mitchell (AUS) was the third finisher and was satisfied with her result of 16:42,9. She was very proud to be part of this challenging race. She is a specialist at 3.000m steeplechase, but likes to use road races for her training: She hopes to qualify for the Olympics in June.

Unfortunately, Katrina Wootton (GB) had to cancel her participation due to an ankle injury a few days ago. The fastest Austrian athlete was young Lisa Maria Leutner. She was the fourth with 17:49,0.

16.144 participants – absolute top record
The success story of the Austrian Women’s Run continues: With 16.144 women from 58 countries there was a 10% increase compared to the previous year: 13.052 women ran the 5k (11.079 runners and 1.973 Nordic Walkers) and 3.092 the 10k. About 60.000 people were watching and cheering along the course.

21 years of success
The vision that Ilse Dippmann had in 1987 became the biggest women’s run of Central Europe.

The organisers Ilse Dippmann and Andreas Schnabl got a great compliment by Sabrina Mockenhaupt, who preferred to participate in the Austrian Women’s Run rather than the one in Berlin: "I have never seen a bigger women’s run, and I would love to return any time."

Other international athletes also enjoy the women’s run in Vienna – de Vos and Mitchell were already guests in 2007 as well – a fact that underlines the high quality of this huge event.