Barega makes a good debut in Seville

The absolute protagonist was the Olympic and World champion Selemon Barega who, in his debut over the distance, got the victory in the flattest course in Europe. The top contender for the triumph broke away alone from kilometre 22 to break the group of favourites, made up of up to 10 runners, pacers included.

Barega, 25 years old, tried to beat the record of the Zurich Maraton de Sevilla, set last year by Azmera Gebru, also Ethiopian, with 2h03:27. Finally, he finished in 2h05:15. After the Ethiopian star, the men’s podium was completed by another runner from the African country, Adisu Tesfahun Tafere (2h06:27), and the Moroccan Mohamed Reda El Aaraby (2h:06:45), who climbed up positions in the last kilometres to escort the champion in a race that once again demonstrated the ideal conditions of its route and high level. In fact, 17 athletes crossed the finish line under 2h08 and there were 28 under 2h10 and 45 under 2h15.

Among the Spanish athletes, the first classified was the debutant Ilias Fifa, member of the chasing group of the favourites during the first part of the race and 29th in the final classification with a time of 2h10:10.

In the wheelchair category, the victory went to Joaquín García (1h50:22), accompanied on the podium by Marco Antonio Baena (2h00:50) and Norberto Chávez (2h05:24). In the female category, Carmen Gimenez was the winner. (2h10:41)

The Zurich Maraton de Sevilla has once again surpassed itself in its 40th edition. In fact, the 14,000 available numbers, the new participation limit, were sold out six months earlier in an event which, apart from the 250 elite runners, has registered several significant records. This is confirmed by the 7,250 foreigners registered (51.6%) from more than 100 nationalities who took part in the Paseo de las Delicias, the 2,809 women participants (20%) and the 3,282 Andalusians present, 2,484 from Seville.

The Zurich Maraton de Sevilla is organised by the Seville City Council with the collaboration of Sport Life Ibérica and the main sponsorship of Zurich Seguros, Asics as technical sponsor and TotalEnergies as gold sponsor. Hyundai, CaixaBank, Carrefour, Apitox, 226ers, Powerade and ABC complete the list of sponsors.