Warm Siberian traditions

Offering a variety of distances including the classic marathon, 10 km, and 3 km, the festival brings together runners of all levels, ensuring that everyone can be a part of this unforgettable experience. This year, traditionally, the entire route ran through the famous historical sights of the city of Omsk.

It is interesting to note that the organizers managed to lay out the entire route along the embankment of the Siberian Irtysh River, while maintaining the start and finish place in the very heart of the city – on Cathedral Square.

The main distance of the 35th SIM – 42.195 km – was completed by 377 athletes. Almost six thousand people took part in the Siberian International Marathon, representing ten countries from five continents. The leader of the men’s race was John Rotich Mitei from Kenya, who showed his best result of 2:12:34 this year in Rome. He expected to improve his result in Omsk, but the first experience of running in unknown and unpredictable climatic conditions of the Siberian summer did not allow the African athlete to do this.

The final result of Rotich Mitei was 2:17:04, which allowed him to win the gold medal. Among women, the winner of the 2022 Comrades ultramarathon, Alexandra Morozova from Yekaterinburg (Russia), took the highest step of the podium, winning SIM-2024 with a time of 2 hours 34 minutes 34 seconds.

Another annual memorable Siberian tradition is to perpetuate the names of the marathon winners in the history of the city. Every year, they are inscribed on the pedestal of the unique sculpture “Golden Marathon Runner”, installed in 2003 right in front of the Cathedral. 34 plaques – corresponding to the number of marathons that took place – with the names of those who went down in the history of the city already decorate its central square. This year, two more names of the winners of the 35th SIM will appear here, who will be symbolically connected with Siberia.