Behind Dennis Kimetto it is Dino Sefir who has the second fastest personal best in the field. The 29 year-old smashed his PB in Dubai in 2012 when he was second with a world-class time of 2:04:50. A year earlier he had improved significantly in the half marathon when he clocked 59:42. While he could not match these sort of times in the following years he showed good consistency on a fine level. In four marathons Dino Sefir clocked times between 2:08 and 2:09, winning in Barcelona as well as in Ottawa two years ago. Additionally he was eighth in the high-class 2017 Boston-Marathon.

Returning to Vienna is the runner-up from last year: Ishmael Bushendich was involved in the closest race ever in the history of the Vienna City Marathon, which will see its 35th edition next week. With a time of 2:08:42 he crossed the line just behind fellow-Kenyan Albert Korir. While he knows the course in Vienna he probably returns with increased confidence after taking the Lisbon Marathon last autumn with 2:10:51. The 26 year-old has already won five marathon races during his career: Enschede and La Rochelle in 2012, Ljubljana in 2014, Toronto in 2015 and Lisbon last October.

Another contender who won a marathon last year is Abrah Milaw. The 30 year-old Ethiopian took the race in Stockholm with 2:11:36. Milaw features a personal best of 2:07:46 from Dubai 2014. Samwel Maswai ran his debut marathon in Vienna back in 2009 and then improved to 2:08:52 in Berlin four years later. While he will return to the Austrian capital it will be a first start at the Vienna City Marathon for Dominic Ruto and Birhanu Addisie. Ruto ran his first sub 2:10 time in Rome two years ago when he was third with 2:09:28. A year ago the Kenyan returned to the race and improved to 2:09:08, this time finishing as the runner-up. Now he decided that it was time for a change and opted for the Vienna City Marathon as his major spring race. Ethiopia’s Addisie ran his current PB of 2:09:27 when he finished second in Rome two years ago, beating Ruto by just one second.