Günther Weidlinger (born April 5, 1978 in Braunau am Inn) is an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n long-distance runner who is a former

3000 metres steeplechase The 3000 metres steeplechase or 3000-meter steeplechase (usually abbreviated as ) is the most common distance for the steeplechase in track and field. It is an obstacle race over the distance of the 3000 metres, which derives its name from the ...

specialist but now competes in the

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

. He first made his mark in

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

as a junior athlete in European competitions: winning the steeplechase at the 1997

European Athletics Junior Championships The European Athletics U20 Championships (formerly named the European Athletics Junior Championships up to 2015) are the European championships for athletes who are under-20 athletes, which is the age range recognised by World Athletics as jun ...

and a

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, et ...

at the 1997 European Cross Country Championships. He set a national record in the event in the final of the

1999 World Championships in Athletics The 7th World Championships in Athletics, a World Athletic Championships event held under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Estadio Olímpico, Seville, Spain, between the August 20 and Augu ...

and also reached the final at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

. He reached a number of major championship finals over the following five years and represented Austria at the

2004 Athens Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

, as well as the

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...

and 2005 World Championships. He began to focus on the

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The ra ...

and

road running Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road. This differs from track and field on a regular track and cross country running over natural terrain. These events are usually classified as long-distance ...

in 2007. He won the silver at the 2007 European Cup 10000m and set a

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcut ...

national record at the IAAF World Road Running Championships. Weidlinger won the 2008

Great Manchester Run The Great Manchester Run (styled as the ''Simplyhealth Great Manchester Run'' for sponsorship purposes from 2017) is an annual run through Greater Manchester (namely Manchester, Trafford and Salford). It has consisted of a 10k run since it was ...

in another national record time and ran in the 10,000 m at the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

. He made his marathon debut in 2009 and broke the 23-year-old Austrian record in the marathon on his second attempt, running 2:10:47 at the

Frankfurt Marathon The Frankfurt Marathon (official name as of 2016: Mainova Frankfurt Marathon, until 2015: BMW Frankfurt Marathon, until 2010: Commerzbank Frankfurt Marathon) is a marathon which has taken place every year in Frankfurt am Main since its inception i ...

. He won the 2009

Great Australian Run The Great Australian Run is an annual 15 kilometres road running race which normally takes place in November in Melbourne, Australia. First held in 2008, it is an international version of the British-based Great Run series. The race fea ...

to set the 15 km national record. He is a multiple national record holder with best marks including:

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athle ...

, 3000 m steeplechase,

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a s ...

, 10,000 m on the track, and 10 km, 15 km, half marathon and marathon in road events. He won his fiftieth national title over all distances and surfaces in March 2011, claiming the Austrian half marathon title.

Career

Early career

Weidlinger started his career as a specialist in the

and he just missed out on a medal at the

1996 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 1996 World Junior Championships in Athletics were held in Sydney, Australia on August 20–25. Results Men Women Medal table Participation According to an unofficial count through an unofficial result list, 1049 athletes from 142 cou ...

, finishing fourth in the final. He won his first championship medal the following year, by winning the steeplechase race at the

1997 European Athletics Junior Championships The 1997 European Athletics Junior Championships were held in Ljubljana, Slovenia on July 24–27. Men's results Women's results Medal table ReferencesResults- GBR Athletics
- GBR Athletics {{European athletics champs European Athlet ...

. He began representing Austria in

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open cou ...

competitions and after winning a

in the junior race at the 1997 European Cross Country Championships, he stepped up to the senior ranks for the 1998 edition and was fourth, just a second behind

Driss El Himer Driss El Himer ( ar, ادريس الهمِر) (born 4 April 1974 in Kezazna, Morocco) is a French long-distance runner. He competed in the marathon at the 2004 Olympics, finishing 68th. He finished 6th in the long race at the 2001 IAAF World Cr ...

. After winning the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have be ...

at the

1999 European Athletics U23 Championships The 2nd European Athletics U23 Championships were held in Gothenburg, Sweden, at Ullevi from 29 July to 1 August 1999. Complete results and medal winners were published. Results Men Women Medal table Participation According to an un ...

, he attended his first global senior championships – the

. He reached the steeplechase final and finished in ninth position with a national record time of 8:10.83. He improved upon this the following year by taking eighth place in the same event at the

. Weidlinger took tenth place at the 2002 European Cross Country Championships. Competing at his first

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletics Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for men ...

, he finished twelfth in the final of the 2002 edition. He opened the following season with an appearance in the

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

at the World Indoor Championships, where he reached the final and finished in tenth place. He participated in another global event in the outdoor season, but he did not finish in his steeplechase heat at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics. He finished third at the World Military Games in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

in December 2003 at the

. He returned to the European Cross Country Championships at the end of his

campaign, but only managed eleventh position on that occasion. For the 2004, he switched to compete in the plain 3000 m and

events but experienced little success: he did not make the final at the

2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 10th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) were held in the Budapest Arena, Hungary between March 5 and March 7, 2004. A total off 139 countries were r ...

and in the men's 5000 m at the

he only managed eleventh in the heats. He was invited to compete in the 3000 m at the

2004 IAAF World Athletics Final The 2nd IAAF World Athletics Final was held at the Stade Louis II, in Monte Carlo, Monaco on September 18, and September 19, 2004. The hammer throw event for men and women had to take place in Szombathely, Hungary a week previous as the Monaco s ...

, but finished dead last – some seven seconds behind the slowest other runner. The

2004 European Cross Country Championships The 11th European Cross Country Championships were held at Seebad Heringsdorf in Germany on 12 December 2004. Serhiy Lebid took his fifth title in the men's competition and Hayley Yelling won the women's race. Results Complete results at the ar ...

demonstrated that his abilities could be better suited to longer distances as he finished fourth in the men's 9.64 km race. His 2005 was more successful: he began with a fourth-place finish in the 3000 m at the

2005 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 2005 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held at the Palacio de Deportes in Madrid, the capital city of Spain, from Friday, 4 March to Sunday, 6 March 2005. This was the first edition to be held in an odd year since switching to the b ...

. He doubled up at the

2005 World Championships in Athletics The 10th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland (6 August 2005 – 14 August 2005), the site of the first IAAF ...

, reaching the steeplechase final and finishing eleventh, although he failed to finish in the heats of the 5000 m. He closed the year by running at the

2005 European Cross Country Championships The 12th European Cross Country Championships were held at Tilburg in Netherlands on 11 December 2005. Serhiy Lebid won the men's competition for the sixth time and Lornah Kiplagat won the women's race. Results Men individual 9.84 km Total ...

, just missing out on medals, seconds behind the bronze medallist in fifth. In 2006, he was tenth at the

2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 11th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) was held in Moscow from March 10 to March 12, 2006 in the Olimpiyski Sport arena. The announcement by the I ...

in the 3000 m. He won the 5000 m in the Group A competition at the 2006 European Cup and managed seventh in the steeplechase at the

2006 European Athletics Championships The 19th European Athletics Championships were held in Gothenburg, Sweden, between 7 August and 13 August 2006. The competition arena was the Ullevi Stadium and the official motto "Catch the Spirit". Gothenburg also hosted the 1995 World Champions ...

Move away from steeplechase

He began to run over longer distances from 2007 onwards, moving away from being a steeplechase specialist. He started the year at the

2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held in the National Indoor Arena (NIA) in Birmingham, England, from Friday, 2 March to Sunday, 4 March 2007. Birmingham also held the 2003 IAAF World Indoor Championships. Men's results Trac ...

, in which he competed in

and finished seventh. He came second at the 2007 European Cup 10000m behind

André Pollmächer Frank André Pollmächer (born 22 March 1983 in Riesa) is a German long-distance runner who specializes in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres. Biography Pollmächer finished seventh in the 10,000 metres final at the 2006 European Athletics Championshi ...

in his first appearance at the competition. At the 2007 Osaka World Championships he suffered an injury after a collision with one of the barriers. He was subsequently rushed to hospital to treat facial injuries received in the fall which included a split lip, and a cut jaw. His was the most serious incident in a series of accidents in the long-distance events at the championships. Weidlinger was considered a certain qualifier and an outside medal chance. He returned to competition soon afterwards, taking tenth place in the

2007 IAAF World Athletics Final The 5th IAAF World Athletics Final was held at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion in Stuttgart, Germany on September 22 and September 23, 2007. Results Men Women See also *2007 in athletics (track and field) References ;Results2007 IAAF World ...

the following month and competing at his first IAAF World Road Running Championships at which he finished in 23rd place but set a national record of 1:01:42. Weidlinger competed at the

Cinque Mulini The Cinque Mulini is an annual cross country running race in San Vittore Olona, Italy. First held in 1933, the course is unusual in that it revolves around a number of water mills along Olona river, which lend the competition its name – meaning ...

cross country race in early 2008 and managed to finish in sixth place. He set two new national records in May that year: first, he ran 27:36.46 in the 10,000 m at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

, taking second behind

Craig Mottram Craig Mottram (born 18 June 1980) is a former Australian long and middle-distance runner who specialised in the 5000 meter event. Early years Mottram was born on 18 June 1980 in Frankston, Victoria. He attended Geelong Grammar School. Caree ...

. He then set a 10 km Austrian record at the

: his winning time of 28:10 was just enough to hold off Serhiy Lebid and

Mustafa Mohamed Mustafa Hassan Mohamed ( so, Mustafa Xasan Maxamed, ar, مصطفى حسن محمد) (born 1 March 1979) is a Swedish long-distance runner who mainly competes in the 3000 meter steeplechase. Personal life Mohamed was born in 1979 in Mogadishu, ...

at the finish line. Weidlinger won the Group A 5000 m for a second time at the 2008 European Cup. He competed in the 10,000 m at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

and finished 27th in a time of 28:14.38. This made him the fifth best performing European in the event. On September 1, 2008 he won the Nike Human Race 10K race with a time of 29:25 while running in Munich, Germany.

Marathon debut

His first major event of 2009 was the

Vienna City Marathon The Vienna City Marathon is an annual marathon race over the classic distance of 42.195 km held in Vienna, Austria since 1984. History The first edition was held on with a total of 794 competitors. It is Austria's largest road running eve ...

, in which he finished in ninth place with a time of 2:12:39 for his debut over the distance. In his second marathon outing, Weidlinger improved the Austrian record by over one and a half minutes at the

on 25 October 2009, setting a new mark of 2:10:47 to finish in tenth place. The record was previously held by Gerhard Hartmann and had gone unbroken for over 23 years. In November, he won the

in a personal best and national record time of 43:01 for the 15 km race, defeating 2008 Olympic champion Samuel Wanjiru among others. He returned to the Vienna City Marathon in 2010 and was Austria's best prospect for the podium. However, he finished in 12th place in 2:14:05 after suffering from a calf problem. His next major appearance came at the

Great South Run The Great South Run is an annual 10 mile (16.09 km) road running race which takes place in Portsmouth, United Kingdom providing an intermediate distance between the ten kilometre and the half marathon (21.097 km) runs. Launched in 199 ...

in October and he ended the race in sixth position.Martin, Dave (2010-10-24)
Ebuya clocks the fastest ever 10 Miles in UK

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body fo ...

. Retrieved on 2010-10-24.

Achievements

Personal bests

*All information taken from IAAF profile.

Road race wins

: 2008 *

: 2009

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weidlinger, Gunther 1978 births Living people Austrian male marathon runners Austrian male long-distance runners Austrian male steeplechase runners Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Austria People from Braunau am Inn Sportspeople from Upper Austria