424 run in Sofia

Wizz Air Sofia Marathon
Sun 11 October 2020

The Wizz Air Sofia Marathon was run on 11 October with 2443 starters and 2355 finishers over all three distances (Marathon, Half Marathon and 10km). Viktoriya Khapilina (UKR) and Youssef Sbaai (MAR) finished first out of the 78 women and 346 men who started the Marathon.

Naom Jebet and two others reached halfway in 1:14:13 – well inside the course record of 2:32:35 – but by 30km the pair were 51 seconds ahead of the rest. Jebet fell away in the closing stages as the Ukrainian went on to win in 2:27:57, taking six seconds off the PB she set when winning the Krakow Marathon last year. The top three women all finished inside the previous course record.

In the men’s race Youssef Sbaai and Radouan Nouini were given the same time with Sbaai given the verdict. Six men went through halfway in 1:06:46 but as the pace increased the Moroccan duo only had Mohamed Ali of the Netherlands for company – but by 30km he too had been dropped. Sbaai and Nouini forged ahead in the last 10km and were still locked together as they both crossed the finish line in 2:13:03.