Mailu vows to help Kenyan talents after shining in Vienna City Marathon

Samwel Mailu was glued to the TV screen in October 2019 when his idol Eliud Kipchoge broke the two-hour marathon barrier in Vienna’s Prater Park. 

The sensational achievement made worldwide headlines. It was exactly on the same stretch of road in the Prater, where Mailu broke away from his rivals on Sunday during the 40th Vienna City Marathon. 

“But I did not think about Eliud in this moment as I was not aware that it was exactly on this road where he was running in 2019,” said Mailu who went on to break the nine-year-old course record of the Vienna City Marathon with a time of 2:05:08.  

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Amazingly the final kilometer of the race was his fastest. Despite the final section of the course being less flat than the roads in the Prater Park the Kenyan stormed through the 42nd kilometer in a breathtaking 2:44!

This is a pace much faster than Eliud Kipchoge ran in Vienna back in 2019. While it was of course just one kilometer it still indicates that there is much more to come from Mailu. 

“In future I hope to run 2:03 in the marathon and around 58 minutes in the half marathon,” he said. 

“I would like to run one of the major races and I would prefer a flat course like Berlin,” Mailu who ran his first marathon last year when he was entered as a pacemaker in Frankfurt but carried on and finished second in 2:07:19.

The Kenyan says running in warm conditions suited him. His athletics career was not any serious, competing sparingly in school championships, until 2019 when he competed at the national teachers’ championships winning 1500 m, 5000 m and the 10,000 m

“Instead of taking up a teachers’ job as I had just completed my training, I decided to try running again. I met my present coach Dickson Ngei and started training seriously in 2020, when I moved to his training camp in Machakos,” he explained.

He was second in the Kilimanjaro Marathon this year. While his international career is still at the beginning he already thinks about helping others to start a career in athletics as well.

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“In the area where I grew up football and other ball games dominate while running has not much significance. This is why I decided to organize a 10k running event there.

The race will take place at the beginning of May. We will help some young athletes by paying their school fees and try to guide them,” explained Mailu.