Zurich Marathon won by Russian Oleg Kulkov

[Newsroom]

Though the weather and conditions were perfect, the record set for the best time at the Zurich Marathon was not beaten. However, many personal record times were achieved by the participants and expressed with shouts of joy in the finish area.

The winner of the 42'195 km long race was Oleg Kulkov from Russia, followed by Tadelech Birra from Ethiopia. The new Swiss champions are Tarcis Ancay in the men's category (14th place overall) and Maya Neuenschwander in the women's category (7th place overall).

The poster athletes that the public most wanted to see were missing in this year's race: Viktor Röthlin, the Swiss marathon star and most recognized athlete of the Zurich Marathon races (with the exception of 2006) did not participate in this year's race, after having won the Tokyo marathon race in mid-February. Mirja Jenni, who wanted to finish the Zurich Marathon within the time limit to qualify her to participate in the 2008 Olympics, had to abandon the race after 27 km.

However, the 2008 Zurich Marathon still turned out to be a first-class race with a great atmosphere. 30 year old Russian Oleg Kulkov and 33 year old Tadelech Birra from Ethiopia ran well in the balmy weather. Kulkov celebrated his first major victory and beat his own personal record by more than four minutes with a finish time of 2:11:15. Birra won her second major city marathon with a finish time of 2:32:08. She was also the winner of the Hannover Marathon in 2003, and she missed her own personal record set 8 years ago by a mere 24 seconds.

Tschopp qualifies for Olympic games

The best Swiss runners made less headlines. Tarcis Ancey from Ayer in the canton of Valais won his first marathon race with a finish time of 2:22:32. The fastest Swiss woman was Maya Neuenschwander from Hinterkappelen who finished the race in 2:40:41. The silver medal went to Marcel Tschopp from Winterthur (in the men's category) and to Patricia Morcelli from Cham (in the women's category), third place went to Joseph Bago from Petit-Lancy (men's) and Nelly Glauser Figueiredo from Boncourt (women's). Tschopp achieved his Olympic dream: holding dual citizenship (Switzerland and Liechtenstein), his finishing time of 2:24:10 qualifies him to participate in the Olympic games for Liechtenstein.

Out of 4780 participating athletes, 4588 (3777 men and 811 women) finished the race within the required time. This is the lowest number since the first Zurich Marathon race in 2003, with 80 less athletes finishing in 2008 than in 2003, 57 less than last year and 1174 less than in the record year of 2004.