‘Unforgettable’ 21st Zürich new year marathon

In biting cold temperatures of –8 degrees Celsius and in front of sold-out crowds, 1,091 runners from 50 nations delivered outstanding performances, emotional moments and several course records.

The atmospheric opening took place on 31 December at 10:00 p.m. with the Kids Run, where 25 enthusiastic children aged between 3 and 14 completed their laps to the applause of the spectators, marking a sporty start to the new year.

Exactly at midnight, the starting gun was fired for the main races. Despite the icy conditions, the athletes presented themselves in impressive form. In particular, French middle-distance runner Tom Sanfilippo defied the cold in remarkable fashion: he dominated the quarter marathon from the very beginning and celebrated a convincing start-to-finish victory in 34:05 minutes. With this performance, he shattered the previous course record by an impressive 54 seconds. Behind him, a strong five-man chase group formed featuring Marco Fasel, Manuel Hügli, Miro Mülli (all SUI), Eric Muthomi Riungu (KEN) and Vitaliy Shafar (UKR). Fasel and Hügli eventually secured second and third place respectively.

Another highlight followed courtesy of Miro Mülli, who also set a new course record in the half marathon, winning in 1:11:15 hours, narrowly ahead of Eric Muthomi Riungu. Matthias Schmidig (SUI) completed the podium. Ukrainian marathon specialist Vitaliy Shafar, a former Olympic athlete and winner of the Jungfrau Marathon in 2023 and 2024, paid the price for his extremely fast early pace and the cold conditions, and was forced to retire after around 25 kilometres.

The women’s races were equally high-class and emotional. In the women’s quarter marathon, teenagers Lynn Schneeberger (15) and Avania Schwarz (14) battled it out in a thrilling head- to-head duel together with Céline Cébe. In the end, Schneeberger edged out Schwarz by a narrow margin, while Cébe completed the podium in third place.

In the women’s half marathon, Laurine Freitag (GER) narrowly missed the course record but claimed a clear victory in a strong 1:23:05 hours, finishing well ahead of her compatriot Lea Sabrina Kaufmann and France’s Clotilde Boffy.

On the marathon distance of 42.195 kilometres, it initially looked like a comfortable victory for Vitaliy Shafar, who ran at course-record pace for more than 20 kilometres before being forced to abandon the race just beyond halfway due to the extreme conditions. This opened the door for the experienced Philipp Arnold (SUI), who once again ignored the competition and ran his own race. Despite muscular problems, he managed to defend a lead of just over one minute to the finish line, celebrating his fifth victory at the Neujahrsmarathon Zurich. Dario Widmer (SUI) finished second, while Timo Böhl (GER) claimed third place after a strong second half of the race.

Equally impressive was the performance of Astrid Roberts Feyer. The Swiss runner, who lives in Australia, won the Neujahrsmarathon Zurich for the second time after her victory in 2020. The 50-year-old left the younger competition no chance, ran at course-record pace for a long time and eventually triumphed in 3:02:14 hours. Astrid Faganel (ITA) finished second, closely followed by Sara van Oordt (SUI) in third place.

With sold-out races, international top-level performances and a unique New Year’s atmosphere, the Neujahrsmarathon Zurich 2026 once again confirmed its special status as a sporting highlight to kick off the new year.

A heartfelt thank you goes to all participants who braved the cold and made the 21st edition of the Neujahrsmarathon Zurich unforgettable, as well as to the tireless volunteers, without whom this success would not have been possible, and to our sponsors.