Marathon:

Vojta crowned national champion in the heat of Linz

Andreas Vojta

(Bild: Linz Marathon)

A big anniversary for Andreas Vojta! The 34-year-old became national champion at the heat marathon in Linz with a time of 2:19:11 hours, securing the 50th title in his career at an Austrian athletics championship. In this statistic, the Lower Austrian, who competes for the Viennese club team2012.at, is only surpassed by Günther Weidlinger (53 titles) in the men's category. Among the women, Karoline Käfer and Andrea Mayr are lonely at the top with 56 championships each.

With temperatures well above 20 degrees, it soon became clear in Linz that Andi Vojta had no chance of achieving an absolute top time. So of course he also clearly missed Peter Herzog's Austrian record (2:10:06) and can also write off his dream of an Olympic start in Paris. Nevertheless, it spoke for him once again that he fought his way to the finish line with great bravura as the winner of the championships in 2:19:11 hours. Unsurprisingly, this was also well below his personal best of 2:13:43 set in Frankfurt 2023. Vojta finished a strong eleventh overall.

"The heat was brutal!"
"The heat was brutal, there really wasn't a better time possible. I was still on target up to 10 or 15 km, but then I had to drop my pace, 15 km was the crucial point. It got hotter and hotter and I just wanted to get through. In the end I came along like a zombie," said Andreas Vojta, for whom the 50th title was a big deal. "Of course I'm delighted about the anniversary, I'd like to thank everyone who cheered me on so much. I gave it my all!"

At the top of the 22nd Oberbank Marathon, Goitom Kifle was the favorite to win. The 30-year-old from Eritrea ran an excellent time of 2:08:11 in the heat, but of course had no chance of improving the course record (2:06:13). Second place went to Denis Chirchir from Kenya in an equally strong 2:08:24.

First title already in 2009
Andreas Vojta, who successfully defended his title at the national championships held as part of the marathon in Linz, had already won his first athletics championship in the general class in 2009. Back then, he won the 1500 m in 3:53.61 minutes. He would never have dreamed that 15 years later he would have won a total of 50 titles...

The 1500 m in particular was to become his great domain. As a serial champion, he won 21 titles on this track alone - 10 outdoors and 11 indoors. His range led the athlete trained by Willy Lilge to victories in championships from 800 m to the marathon. After 5000 m and 10,000 m on the track and cross-country, his path finally led him to road running, where he was successful as Austrian champion over 10 km, in the half marathon and in the marathon.

From 2010 to 2023, Andi Vojta won at least two titles every year, with his most successful year being 2021, when he won eight Austrian championships. Of his 50 titles to date, he has won 49 in individual disciplines and once won the team half marathon with team2012.at (see the detailed statistics below).

Only Günther Weidlinger, who won 53 national titles between 1997 and 2013, is ahead of Vojta. Of these, the Upper Austrian won 17 championships in cross-country alone. He was successful six times in the 3000 m steeplechase, which was his international showpiece discipline. At a national level, Weidlinger was able to add his name to the championships list up to the half marathon. Weidlinger and Vojta are followed in these statistics by former European indoor champion Dietmar Millonig with 43 titles, which he won between 1973 and 1993.

From sprinting to mountain running
Karoline Käfer and Andrea Mayr are the undisputed leaders in the women's category with 56 titles each. Käfer won her 56 titles in the very long period from 1972 to 1999. In the 1970s, she won the sprint titles from 100 m to 400 m in large series, with her last title coming in 1999 in the mountain run. However, she did not win 60 titles, as many statistics claim. This is apparently due to one of the very rare mistakes made by the revered Erich Kamper (1914 to 1995), who gave Karoline Käfer four relay titles too many. Andrea Mayr also won 56 titles between 2001 and 2023 - 16 of them in the mountain run alone and 8 titles each in the 3000 m steeplechase and 10,000 m.