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	Switzerland's Viktor Röthlin, to run New York Marathon 2005

Switzerland's Top Distance Runner, Viktor Röthlin, to Run the ING New York City Marathon 2005

ZURICH - (July 18, 2005) - Switzerland's leading long-distance runner, Viktor Röthlin, has announced that he will be making his ING New York City Marathon debut this year on Sunday, November 6. Röthlin is the national marathon record-holder and a 2000 and 2004 Olympian.

ING New York City Marathon race director and New York Road Runners president and CEO Mary Wittenberg extended a personal welcome to Röthlin in a telephone call from New York.

"While no Swiss man has ever won in New York, Viktor might change all of that this year," said Wittenberg. "New York has a storied history of being the place where runners like Alberto Salazar, German Silva and Orlando Pizzolato have come as unknowns and left as champions. This might be Viktor's time."

Only one Swiss man, seventh-place finisher Daniel Boltz in 1991, has cracked the top 10 in New York. The late Franziska Rochat-Moser of Switzerland won the women's race in 1997 in 2:28:43. Rochat-Moser died in a climbing accident in 2002.

Röthlin, 30, of Kerns, set a Swiss record of 2:09:56 in his first place finish at the 2004 Zurich Marathon. He was also the 2004 Swiss 5000 meter champion. Röthlin represented Switzerland in the 2000 Olympic marathon in Sydney, where he finished 36th (2:20:06), and finished 14th at the 2003 IAAF World Championships Marathon in Paris in 2:11:14.

Röthlin joins reigning ING New York City Marathon champion Hendrick Ramaala of South Africa and runner-up and 2004 Olympic marathon silver medalist Meb Keflezighi of the United States as part of a superb ING New York City Marathon 2005 men's field.

source RunningUSA