Ethiopia's Derara Hurisa finished first in Sunday's Vienna Marathon, but he did not win the race. Instead, he was disqualified for wearing the wrong shoes during the race. After the 24-year-old crossed the finish line, he was told of the disqualification because he was wearing shoes with soles that were one centimeter thicker than the four centimeter maximum.
So the original second place finisher, Leonard Langat of Kenya, was declared the winner. Langat finished in in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 25 seconds -- three seconds after Harisa. The organizers of the marathon said that when Hurisa originally entered the race, he registered with shoes that were in line with their guidelines. He did not go with those shoes for the race, though, and instead wore ones he had used during training -- which had soles that were too thick.
"I can't say at the moment why he didn't run in the shoes that were specified in the form," race coordinator Johannes Langer said, according to the Associated Press.
Betesfa Getahun of Ethiopia ended up as the new second place finisher and Edwin Kosgei of Kenya was named the third place runner.
On the women's side, debutant Vibian Chepkirui of Kenya was the winner with a time of 2 hours, 24 minutes and 29 seconds.
