Posted: May 16, 2004

Athletics: Simon Defeated at Vienna City Marathon

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

Lidia Simon's return to the marathon was only partially successful today, when she finished second behind Italian Rosaria Console at the Vienna City Marathon.

In very windy conditions, Console ran 2:29:22, well off of her career best of 2:27:48. It was her second marathon in 49 days; she also finshed at Roma in March. Simon, the 2001 world marathon champion from Romania, finished more than one minute behind in 2:30:40. German Sonja Oberem finished third in 2:30:58.

Console, 24, did not run the 2:28:00 Olympic qualifying standard set forth by her federation, FIDAL. However, she still may be selected for the team because she won the race and her level of effort was significant due to the wind. Simon, however, did qualify for the Romanian Olympic team, as her federation chose only to require the IAAF "A" standard of 2:37:00.

Samson Kandie won the men's race in a course record 2:08:35, just four seconds slower than his career best time. Raymond Kipkoech (Kenya) was second in 2:10:45 and Luis Jesus (Portugal) came in third with 2:11:24. Moses Tanui finished 11th in 2:15:09.

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