Austrian dm Women's Run 2008

Sabrina Mockenhaupt wins 21st Austrian dm Women's Run

For the third time, the winner of the 21st Austrian dm Women's Run is Sabrina Mockenhaupt (GER). The 27-year-old German, who won the race in 2005 and 2007 too, was the top favourite runner and ran the 5k in 15:57,6 min with 60.000 people watching. However, Mockenhaupt was not able to break the course record of 15:35,9 (set by Hungarian Krisztina Papp, 2006), so she was very disappointed: "I am angry at myself, because I was too motivated und started too fast. The sticky weather played a role too, so I was far from reaching the course record."
Nathalie de Vos (BEL), the fastest European woman over 10.000m, reached the finish line as second (16:08,1) and agreed with Mockenhaupt: "We ran the first kilometer much too fast, which was a great mistake under these weather conditions." They will be competing again at the Olympic Games in Peking over 10.000m.
Victoria Mitchell (AUS) reached the third place and was satisfied with her result (16:42,9). The year before, she couldn't participate due to a foot injury, so she was very happy to be able to run this year with such high quality competitors. Although Mitchell's special field is the 3.000m steeplechase, she considers road races like this as an ideal training - she hopes to qualify for the Olympic Games in June.
The fastest Austrian runner was junior athlete Lisa Maria Leutner. She reached the finish line as fourth after 17:49,0 and was overwhelmed: "Although it was my first competition after an injury, it was a perfect race for me! And with so many spectators it's just pure joy to participate."
Unfortunately, Katrina Wootton (GB) had to cancel her participation due to an ankle injury, and the Austrian athlete Renate Reingruber was also not able to participate because of an infect.

16.144 participants - absolute record

The success story of the Austrian dm Women's Run does not stop: For the very first time all the race numbers were sold out in the pre-registration phase. Therefore the organisers were able to present - again - a new participation record: With the amazing number of 16.144 women from 58 nations there were 1.500 more participating than in the previous year. 13.052 of them chose the 5k (11.079 runners and 1.973 nordic walkers), and 3.092 ran the 10k.

The Kids Run is growing too

Adding the number of the Kids Run, there were even more participants - all in all 17.215. The popular Kids Run, that traditionally takes place on Saturday before the Women's Run, attracted 1.071 girls and boys between 2 and 12 years of age. This year the run had a special focus on the integration of children with disabilities: No matter if the handicap was down syndrome, a hearing impairment or a wheelchair - everybody could participate.

Successful for 21 years

Starting in 1987 with a vision, Ilse Dippmann established the biggest women's run in Continental Europe. The fact that many international athletes have already participated several times - Nathalie de Vos and Victoria Mitchell already took part in 2007 - highlights the top quality of this unique women's event.