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Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia Wins Austrian Women's Run 5K in 15:30
Record Number of Participants; 22 Years of Success
From the Austrian Women's Run
June 9, 2009
Vienna, Austria
The winner of the 22nd Austrian Women's Run 5K, held on Sunday, June 7, is 32-year-old Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia. The two-time ING NYC Marathon winner was much faster than her competitors, and ran the 5K in 15:30, breaking the old course record of Krisztina Papp of Hungary from 2006 (15:36). Jelena Prokopcuka was very happy, because she didn't expect to win, "Before the start I turned around and saw thousands of women standing behind me, it was so amazing! That gave me additional energy and motivation to win." She was very impressed by the organisation of the huge event, and repeatedly said "Well done!" to the organisational team of Ilse Dippmann and Andreas Schnabl.
Benita Johnson of Australia, 2004 Women's World Cross Country Champion, was the second finisher (16:05) in the Austrian Women's Run 5K. "Jelena was too fast for us, but the atmosphere here was fantastic. I would love to return to Vienna next year!" Krisztina Papp of Hungary, the fastest European woman in the 10.000m, finished third (16:09). "I was at training camp recently, so I could not run faster, but it was a great race with ideal weather conditions!" Julia Bleasdale (GB) finished in fourth place (16:37); "The audience along the course was just amazing, and I loved the music and drums. They gave me another kick to run faster," Bleasdale exclaimed. The fastest Austrian athlete was 17-year-old Jennifer Wenth, who ran the 5K in 16:53.
The Austrian Women's Run 5K & 10K keeps growing. For the first time in its history, registration had to be closed when the event sold out four weeks before race day. There were 18.141 women and girls from 70 countries registered for the Austrian Women's Run 5K & 10K in the beautiful green Vienna Prater, almost 2.000 more than in 2008. The event has more than doubled in size in only five years. This year, there were more than 12,000 finishers in the 5K and 2,900 in the 10K.
The vision that Ilse Dippmann had in 1987 has been realized; the Austrian Women's Run is the biggest women's run in Central Europe, and it continues to grow every year. She follows the philosophy of her good friend and women's runs' pioneer, Kathrine Switzer: "It's more than running or fitness. It's about changing women's lives."
"In 1986, Ilse Dippmann ran the New York City Marathon and found one of the brochures for the New York Mini Marathon. . ." Learn more about the Austrian Women's Run at the event Web site www.austrianwomensrun.com