Eight national records set at Seville Marathon

The second classified, French athlete Morhad Amdouni (2h03:47) achieved the record of his country, getting closer to the European record (2h03:36).

12 runners have run under 2h08 and 24 women under 2h28, achieving up to eight national records, and the male world leading.

Ibrahim Chakir (2h07:48) and Esther Navarrete (2h24:40) are crowned Spanish champions and get the classification for the Olympic Games in Paris.

The podium of the men’s race, with up to 12 athletes under 2h08 in a new demonstration of the qualities of the flattest course in Europe, which invites athletes to fly over the Sevillian asphalt, was completed with the Israeli Gashau Ayale, who achieved the third place in 2h04:53 and, in the process, a new national record.

In addition to France and Israel, Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa, 4th with 2h06:06; Sweden’s Suldan Hassan, 10th with 2h07:36; Chile’s Carlos Martín, 18th with 2h08:04; and Macedonia’s Dario Ivanovski, 20th with 2h08:26, also achieved their respective national records.

Among the Spaniards, with the Spanish Championships at stake and the Olympic ticket for the winner, Ibrahim Shakir finished in a brilliant eleventh position and won the title. Going from strength to strength, the Soria-based athlete overtook his rivals for the national crown to cross the finish line with 2h07:48, the minimum time for the Games, where he guarantees his presence next summer.

Runner-up with 2h08:03 was Mohamed El Talhaoui, while the national record holder Ayad Lamdassem, who until the halfway point of the race was ambitious and set times that aspired to beat the national record (2h05:48), lowered the pace in the second part of the race to get the third place among the Spaniards with 2h09:43.

In the women’s category, Ethiopia’s Azmera Gebru was the winner clocking in 2h22:13. The African hegemony was maintained, completing the podium with the Kenyans Josephine Chepkoech (2h22:38) and Magdalyne Masai (2h22:51).

In the top ten of the women’s category, where up to 24 runners finished under 2 hours and 28 minutes, new national records for the French athlete Meline Rollin (7th, 2h24:12) and the Argentinean Florencia Borelli (8th, 2h24:18), which, by the way, means a new area record in South America.

As for the Spanish women, Esther Navarrete was more than brilliantly proclaimed Spanish champion in her debut over the distance. And she did so by obtaining the qualifying standard for the Olympic Games and a direct passport to Paris 2024 with a time of 2h24:40, three minutes faster the time required by the RFEA (2h28:00). In the final part of the race, she broke the head-to-head battle with the other great favourite to obtain the Olympic passport, Meritxell Soler, national runner-up with 2h24:57. Meanwhile, Clara Simal from Madrid (2h31:21) completed the podium of a women’s Spanish Championships to which the Andalusian Fátima Ouhaddou and María José Pérez from La Mancha also aspired, although they had to abandon for various reasons after the 21st kilometre.

The prelude to the start of the 39th Zurich Maraton de Sevilla was doubly emotional, with two tributes. First of all, the race wanted to pay tribute with 42 symbolic seconds of silence to the world marathon record holder Kelvin Kiptum, who died just seven days before together with his coach in a traffic accident in Kenya.

Afterwards, Abel Antón was paid tribute to the 25th anniversary of the gold medal won by the athlete from Soria at the World Championships in Seville in 1999. In commemoration of that title, the medal of the current edition of the Zurich Maraton de Sevilla with which the finishers of the race have been recognised contains the iconic image of Abel Antón crossing the finish line in Seville, whose streets the best Spanish marathon runner of all times has run again this Sunday.