March 14,2012 10:30 am (CET)

  • Haile Gebrselassie, the greatest runner of all time, will be on the starting line for the OMV Half Marathon at the Vienna City Marathon
  • There will be two global stars in one exciting spectacle, as Haile Gebrselassie and Paula Radcliffe compete in a pursuit race over the half marathon distance

Haile Gebrselassie, the greatest runner of all time, will again be electrifying participants and spectators at the 2012 Vienna City Marathon. The two-time Olympic champion and nine-time world champion will be competing in the OMV Champions Race on April 15, 2012. This will see him run a pursuit race with world record holder Paula Radcliffe over the 13.1 mile course, which promises to be extraordinarily exciting. The two outstanding male and female personalities of long-distance running over recent decades will be going head to head in the OMV Half Marathon.

How the OMV Champions Race will work
The UK's Paula Radcliffe will be given a head start in the OMV Half Marathon, her most important test run before the Olympics - taking place in front of her home crowd. Haile will follow her with rest of the elite and leisure runners and will attempt to catch her up before the finish line on Heldenplatz in central Vienna. The exact head start will be agreed at a later date. This will be the second time Haile Gebrselassie has competed in the Vienna City Marathon, after winning the half marathon in 60:18 minutes last year.

Haile and Paula in a pursuit race
"Haile enjoyed Vienna a great deal and has very happy memories of it. When we said goodbye last year he told me: 'I'l l be back'. We are very proud that he is keeping his word. We will be celebrating his appearance in the OMV Champions Race as a 'Tribute to Haile' that is set to fire up him and all those involved," says Wolfgang Konrad, the organizer of the Vienna City Marathon. "With him and Paula Radcliffe in Vienna, we will be seeing the two biggest stars of long-distance running in the same race. They were both immediately excited by the idea of a pursuit race. This will be an unprecedented spectacle in global running."

Prepared well in advance
"It all started with the idea of holding a top-class half marathon, the OMV Champions Race, as part of the Vienna City Marathon. We have been working on the project since summer 2011," comments OMV Sponsoring Manager Christian Moser. The first specific talks about Haile Gebrselassie running again in Vienna took place at the Berlin Marathon in September. "When the opportunity arose last autumn to have Paula Radcliffe competing as well, that was the first time VCM put forward the idea of an OMV Champions Race with Haile and Paula running a pursuit in the OMV Half Marathon," adds Moser. Both stars agreed at once. However, Haile retained the option to reconsider after he had run the Tokyo Marathon on February 26, 2012. His time there was an impressive 2:08:17, but given the strength of competition in Ethiopia that was not fast enough for him to qualify to represent his country at the Olympics. " It looks like my Olympic marathon dream is over," he announced with some disappointment over Twitter. After a brief period of reflection, Haile has decided to remain with his original plan and run the OMV Champions Race on April 15, 2012.


Competitions of the 29th Vienna City Marathon on April 15, 2012

  • Vienna City Marathon (42.195 kilometer), start: Wagramer Straße / UN Building / Reichsbrücke, 9 a.m.
  • OMV Half Marathon (21.097 kilometer), start: Wagramer Straße / UN Building / Reichsbrücke, 9 a.m.
  • Coca Cola Run 4.2 (4.2 kilometer - for children and young people between 10 and 18), start: Lassallestraße, 8.30 a.m.
  • Coca Cola Run 1.0 (1 kilometer - for children between 6 and 10), start: Ringstraßengalerien, 8.30 a.m.

All of the races finish at Heldenplatz.
For more information and online registration, visit www.vienna-marathon.com


Background information:

OMV Aktiengesellschaft
With Group sales of EUR 34.05 bn and a workforce of 29.800 employees in 2011, OMV Aktiengesellschaft is one of Austria's largest listed industrial companies. In Exploration and Production, OMV is active in two core countries Romania and Austria and holds a balanced international portfolio. OMV had proven oil and gas reserves of approximately 1.13 bn boe as of year-end 2011 and a production of around 288,000 boe/d in 2011. In Refining and Marketing, OMV has an annual refining capacity of 22.3 mn t and as of the end of 2011 approximately 4,550 filling stations in 13 countries including Turkey. In Gas and Power, OMV sold approximately 24 bcm of gas in 2011. In Austria, OMV operates a 2,000 km long gas pipeline network with a marketed capacity of around
101 bcm in 2011. With a trading volume of around 40 bcm in 2011, OMV's gas trading platform, the Central European Gas Hub, is amongst the most important hubs in Continental Europe. OMV further strengthened its position through the ownership of a 97% stake in Petrol Ofisi, Turkey's leading company in the retail and commercial business.

Sustainability
OMV is a signatory to the UN Global Compact, and an active supporter to the values enshrined in its Code of Conduct. These include a strong sense of responsibility towards the social and natural environment, especially in economically weak regions. OMV continuously addresses economic, environmental and social issues related to its business in a responsible manner. The company reports on its activities in a sustainability report in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative Guidelines.

OMV sponsoring
OMV's sponsorship extends to sport and culture. In the sporting arena, OMV is involved in regionally significant locations in Central and Eastern Europe in ski jumping (national ski associations in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Romania), running and football. OMV's cultural sponsorship focuses on promoting cultural exchange between its core markets in Austria, Romania and Turkey in the field of contemporary fine arts.


About the Vienna City Marathon
The Vienna City Marathon (VCM) was first held in 1984 and has since become Austria's largest sporting event, involving more than 32,000 runners. Competitors from over 100 nations underline its international reputation. 300,000 spectators cheer on the runners along a route that takes them past numerous historical monuments. The event combines running with Vienna's classical culture and offers a platform for social and charity projects. The VCM provides an important boost to the economy and each year generates domestic spending of EUR 18 million. The runners will put in over 2.5 million hours of training in preparation for the Vienna City Marathon, making the VCM Austria's biggest exercise and health initiative. The IAAF has awarded the Vienna City Marathon the IAAF Road Race Gold Label, the world's highest category of road race.