Results for 2022

3-Sjøersløpet had 1928 finishers, and you may see the results here:https://secure.onreg.com/onreg2/front/resultsmenu.php?id=5538

Ethiopia’s Chala Regasa and Kenya’s Irine Cheptai took the honours at the Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon when they crossed the line in 1:00:30 and 1:06.42 respectively. Regasa, 25, came out on top of a thrilling three-man battle over the final kilometre sprinting away from Kenya’s Felix Kipkoech and fellow Ethiopian Boki Diriba with 400m to go to take the US $27,000 first prize. Kipkoech finished second in 1:00:33 while the debutant Diriba, the Ethiopian U20 5000m champion on the track and still just 18, was third in 1:00:34.

A large group of the elite international field went through 5km in 14:21 and then 10km in 28:48 which meant that the course record – 58:53 set by Ethiopia’s Amedework Walelegn in 2020 – was unlikely to be challenged despite the classy field with 11 men who had run under one hour. Kenya’s Moses Koech, who was to finish sixth, made a noticeable surge just before the 12km checkpoint and was accompanied by Kipkoech, who was frequently to the fore of the main group, but couldn’t shake off any of the main contenders. Nine men were still in contention as 15km was passed in 43:22, guaranteeing a thrilling finale over the final quarter of the race. Shortly after 15km, Kipkoech increased the tempo and one-by-one runners drifted back. By 19km the leading group was reduced to just four, with Kipkoech still doing the majority of the work while Regasa and Diriba, both looking comfortable, watched his every move.

The leading trio passed 20km in 57:31 and duelled almost all the way to the finish line at the famous Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. “The final two kilometres were tough, but I knew I had the speed as I have a good background at shorter distances on the track,” said Regasa.

By contrast the women’s race was a one-woman show from just after halfway. A group of ten women went through 5km in 15:40 and, despite the pace slowing over the next 5km there were still six together at 10km (31:42). Cheptai made her decisive move just after 12km and was never headed, reducing her personal best by one second to 1:06:42. Cheptai finished more than a minute in front of Ethiopia’s 2022 World Athletics Championships 5000m bronze medallist Dawit Seyaum, who finished second in 68:02, while Stella Chesang set a Ugandan record of 68:11 in third place.

Bazu Worku Hayla (Ethiopia) and Caroline Cheptanui Kilel (Kenia) won the 21st Poznań Marathon and set new records in Poznań Marathon.

There were representatives of as many as 26 countries at the start. Eventually 3329 runners crossed the finish line.

The 42.195 kilometre distance of the Tallinn Marathon was won by runners from Kenya. Leonid Latsepov (men) and Kadiliis Kuiv (women) were the Estonian marathon champions. Both also won the Tallinn champions title.

The 42-kilometre classic marathon, the main distance of Estonia’s biggest mass sport event, started Sunday (11.09) morning at 9am at the foot of Tall Hermann from Falgi Road. The starters of the Tallinn Marathon were members of the Estonian Marathon Team, Tiidrek Nurme, Roman Fosti and Kaur Kivistik, who brought Estonia a good sixth place in the European Championships in Munich.

The Tallinn Marathon was won by Jonathan Yego Kiptoo from Kenya in a time of 2 hours 12 minutes 44 seconds. Abiyot Guta Duguma from Ethiopia came second in 2:18.32. Leonid Latsepov of Sparta Sports Club, competing for the first time in the marathon distance, had an excellent run, finishing third at Toompea in 2:18.50, the fastest time ever run by an Estonian marathon runner on Estonian soil. The fastest marathon time ever run on home soil belonged to Rein Leinus in 2:20.03, run in Vändra in 1968. Ranked 11th in the all-time Estonian rankings, Latsepov won both the Estonian and Tallinn championship titles. British runner Sage Pearce-Higgins finished fourth (2:30.24). Bert Tippi (2:32.10) came second in the Estonian championship and Mario Mustasaar of Sparta Sports Club (2:32.23) came third. In the Tallinn Championship, Leonid Latsepov was followed by Mario Mustasaar and Aleksandr Kulešov (2:32.51) from Treeningpartner.

In the women’s category, the women’s medal also went to Kenya. Pauline Mutwa Thitu was fastest with a new Tallinn Marathon record of 2:31.29, beating Naomi Jepkosgei Maiyo by just over a minute (2:32.35). Third place went to Kadi-Liis Kuiv of Prorunner Sports Club, who finished in a new personal best of 2:47.41 to become both Estonian and Tallinn Marathon champion. Ethiopian Mulu Seboka Seyfu, who was expected to be the main favourite, finished fifth among the women (2:53.58). She was also beaten by Lithuanian Inga Cimarmanaite (2:53.29). In the Estonian and Tallinn Championships, Mari Boikov of Treeningpartner was second (2:56.30) and Jana Treier of Sparta Spordiselts was third (2:59.07).

The 10K CityRun of Saturday, 10 September was won in beautiful summer weather and with 2 clear favourite victories by Dominik Rolli from Switzerland in the men’s race and Giovanna Selva from Italy in the women’s race.

The half marathon on Sunday, 11 September, course records were not possible in these temperatures.

Nevertheless, exciting races developed.

The athlete Jeisson Suárez, from Colombia, with a time of 2:15:58 set a new mark for the 42K distance in the 28th edition of the Medellín Marathon, an athletic event organized by MCM Operador de Eventos and which it ran this morning along important roads in the capital of Antioquia, Envigado and Sabaneta.

The record in the Medellín event had been held since 2016 by Amos Kiprotich, from Kenya, with 2:17:52. The other race records are held by Carolyne Chemutai, with 2:37:32, from Kenya, in the 42 kilometer ladies. For their part, in the 21K they are also maintained by Teresa Wanjiku from Kenya, with 1:11:14 in 2002 and Julius Kipyego Keter, with 1:02:34 in 2008.

Suárez was accompanied on the podium by Franklin Téllez, from Colombia, and Samuel Yeko, from Kenya, while in ladies the winner was Hellen Musyoka, from Kenya, followed by Ana Milena Orjuela and Ruby Riativa, both Colombians. For their part, Vidal Basco, from Bolivia, and Angie Orjuela, from the Atletas con Porvenir team from Colombia, were the winners in the 21K distance.

Basco prevailed over Daniel Muteti, from Kenya, and Christian Vasconez, from Ecuador, while Orjuela surpassed Palmenia Agudelo, also from Colombia, and Zaida Ramos, from Peru, in this 28th edition of the Medellín Marathon, an athletic event organized by MCM Operador of Events and which is a qualifier for the 2023 Boston Marathon, is endorsed by World Athletic and a member of AIMS.

The ‘pioneer of street events in Colombia’ had the participation of more than 17,000 athletes, from 35 countries on five continents and 326 cities in 28 departments of Colombia and, in addition, had athletes on the 5 and 10 kilometers.

Kinsey Middleton took top prize at the Tartan Ottawa International Marathon with a time of 2:30:09 – the first Canadian woman to do so since 2007.

In the men’s race, Ethiopian Andualem Shiferaw set a new marathon course record with 2:06:04, the fastest time set on North American soil in 2022. The previous Ottawa course record was set by fellow Ethiopian Yemane Tsegay in 2014, in a time of 2:06:54.

Noteworthy is that the top two finishers in the women’s category were Canadian.

Kenya’s Nicholas Kipkorir Kimeli and Irene Cheptai ran course records of 27:38 and 30:35 respectively at the 14th edition of the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) World 10K Bengaluru 2022. Kipkorir Kimeli, fourth in the Olympic Games 5000m last summer, took the lead in the Indian city with a kilometre to go and pulled away from Ethiopia’s reigning world U20 10,000m champion Tadese Worku to reduce the men’s course record by six seconds from the previous mark set by his compatriot Geoffrey Kamworor in 2014.

The race started off in an unusual manner with Kenya’s Reynold Kipkorir – who was to eventually finish ninth – out on his own for much of the first the first 5km passing that point in 14:00 with the rest of the elite field lagging around 70m behind. But then Worku changed gear and started to rapidly tow the leading men back to Kipkorir before passing him by 6km and then increasing the pace further.

Kipkorir Kimeli continued running just behind Worku for the next 3km, letting his Ethiopian rival do all the hard work, as the pair got back onto course record pace and put daylight between themselves and the rest of the men’s field. Worku was still looked fresh as they reached the final kilometre but could not respond when Kipkorir Kimeli took the lead. He crossed the line in 27:38 with Worku also inside the old record (27:43) while the Kenyan pre-race favourite, and former world half marathon record holder, Kibiwott Kandie made up three places in the final 2km to come through for third in 27:57.

“Honestly, I was not expecting to get the course record. When we reached 5K, we didn’t think we will get the course record, in fact, even when we crossed the 7K-mark, I didn’t think we will make the record. But I really pushed hard towards the end,” reflected Kipkorir Kimeli.

The women’s race unfolded in a very different way as Irene Cheptai took an even bigger slice out of the women’s course record which had stood to the late Agnes Tirop at 31:19 since 2018. After super-fast opening kilometres of 3:02 and 3:04, a quick time was always likely and the race was soon down to just three women at the front: Cheptai, Hellen Obiri and fellow Kenyan Joyce Tele.

Tele started to lose contact with her compatriots in the fifth kilometre before Obriri, pushing the pace with Cheptai running in her slipstream, passed halfway in 15:15. Obiri led the race for the next 2km, going through 6km in 18:23 and 7km in 21:32, before Cheptai took her turn to push at the front for a kilometre before Obiri regained the lead just after 8km. The Kenyan pair carried on their enthralling head-to-head battle but with just 250m to go Cheptai darted past Obiri and was never headed before crossing the line in a personal best of 30:35, her first time inside 31 minutes. Obiri eased off once she knew the race was lost but still came home in an outstanding 30:44, also inside Tirop’s former course record, while Tele was a distant third in 31:47 to complete an all-Kenyan podium. "Even when I entered the stadium for the final lap I was fearing Hellen and kept pushing my speed to win,” commented Cheptai. Kipkorir Kimeli and Cheptai both took home first place cheques of USD 26,000 for their victories and course record bonuses of USD 8000.

Sheila Kiprotich Chepkirui produced the performance of the day, breaking the course record of the Generali Berlin Half Marathon. Despite very cold conditions with almost freezing temperatures at the start she clocked a world-class time of 1:05:02.

The men’s race was also dominated by the Kenyans, who took all podium places. Alex Kibet was the winner with 58:55, missing the course record by only 13 seconds.

In freezing conditions Germans Hendrik Pfeiffer and Domenika Mayer took the HAJ Hannover Marathon and the national championships which were included in the event.

Hendrik Pfeiffer clocked 2:10:59 and was well ahead of Kenyan debutant Josphat Kiptis who ran 2:13:47. Martin Olesen of Denmark took third in 2:14:35. Despite temperatures around zero Celsius Domenika Mayer ran a surprisingly strong marathon debut with 2:26:50. German pre-race favourite Rabea Schöneborn was second with 2:27:35 while Croatia’s Matea Parlov Kostro took third in 2:28:39. Hendrik Pfeiffer and the top three women all achieved the qualifying standards for the European and the World Championships.

In total 18,098 athletes were registered for the 30th edition of the HAJ Hannover Marathon, which is a World Athletics Label Road Race. 3,527 athletes ran the marathon distance. “We are impressed with the event and obviously we were able to make our participants happy,” said Race Director Stefanie Eichel. Next year organisers hope to be able to come back with a bigger field and with a much stronger elite race. The 31st edition of the HAJ Hannover Marathon is scheduled for 26th March 2023.

A group of eight runners passed the half way mark in 65:25. That was almost exactly as planned. At around 25k Hendrik Pfeiffer began to take the initiative. He broke away with Kenyans Josphat Kiptis and Wilfred Kiptoo. Until the 30k mark they had support of pacemaker and fellow-Kenyan Kiprotich Kirui. With around 12k to go Hendrik Pfeiffer left behind his rivals and was then all alone at the front, building a huge lead.

“The atmosphere was superb. The spectators helped me getting through the race. It was a bit tough during the final twelve kilometers,” said Hendrik Pfeiffer, who ran his second fastest marathon in Hannover. The German has a PB of 2:10:18 from 2020. “I have reached all my goals today, which was important for me,” said Hendrik Pfeiffer, who won the race and his first major German title. Additionally he achieved the qualifying standards for the European and the World Championships.

In the women’s race Domenika Mayer, Rabea Schöneborn and Kenya’s Flomena Ngurais were in the leading group when the half marathon mark was passed in 1:13:36. By 30k pre-race favourite Rabea Schöneborn had lost around 20 seconds and soon after that Flomena Ngurais could not cope with Domenika Mayer’s pace. The Kenyan dropped back to fourth later when Matea Parlov Kostro overtook her around the 40k mark.

“I did not think too much about what could happen. Sometimes in a race it just rolls, sometimes it does not. Today was a good day. I just concentrated on my pacemakers. But the wind was partly disturbing,” said Domenika Mayer, who is a mother of two. “It was a great debut. Of course I had no clue before what could happen.” While Domenika Mayer had a promising half marathon PB of 69:52 she had a Corona infection recently. Because of this her triumph was quite a surprise. And she came relatively close to Hannover’s course record: Three years ago Kenya’s Rachel Mutgaa clocked 2:26:15.

Runner-up Rabea Schöneborn ran 2:27:35 which was her second best marathon time. “It was a struggle today and I am happy to have finished,” she said.

Hellen Obiri clocked the tenth fastest time ever with 64:48 to win the 17th N Kolay Istanbul Half Marathon while Rodgers Kwemoi ran a course record of 59:15 to make it a Kenyan double.

Strong winds during the second half of the race prevented even faster times on a sunny day at the Bosphorus.

Dominating the race 24 year-old Rodgers Kwemoi improved the course record by 20 seconds. Daniel Mateiko was second in 60:05 while fellow-Kenyan Emmanuel Bor, who had started the race as a pacemaker, finished third with 60:20. Romania’s Nicolae Soare was the fastest European runner in 12th position with 63:33 and Ramazan Özdemir followed in 14th with 64:02 as the fastest athlete from Turkey.

Hellen Obiri ran another impressive race. When the 32 year-old World Cross Country and 5,000 m World Champion broke the tape in 64:48 she was more than a minute ahead. Ethiopians Tsehay Gemechu and Bekelech Gudeta took second and third with 65:52 and 66:35. While Kenya’s Vicoty Chepngeno finished fourth in 66:58 Yasemin Can of Turkey was fifth with 67:57.

The N Kolay Istanbul Half Marathon had a record number of over 7,000 starters. It is Turkey’s biggest spring road race and a World Athletics Elite Label Road Race.

“The N Kolay Istanbul Half Marathon has continued its great development and has bounced back strongly after the Covid restrictions. We are happy that we had over 7,000 starters for the first time, we got a men’s course record and another very strong performance from Hellen Obiri. It was a great event and we will continue to build on this success,” said Race Director Renay Onur.

With the wind in their back during the first part of the race the leading women produced some spectacular split times. Hellen Obiri and Tsehay Gemechu reached the 5 k point in 14:43 – no-one has run faster this year over this distance and they were well inside the world record of 62:52 at this stage. Soon after that Hellen Obiri was alone in the lead behind her pacemaker and had an advantage of over half a minute at 10 k. Her split time of 29:59 (only a small number of athletes have ever run faster at this distance) pointed towards a 63:15 finish. But facing the wind Hellen Obiri had already clearly slowed and then reached 15 k in 45:25. The course record of 64:02 and her personal best of 64:22 got out of reach quickly in the final part of the race.

“It was so windy during the second half. I would have been able to run quite a bit faster without the wind. But it was nonetheless a good race,” said Hellen Obiri, who now switches her attention to shorter road races. In contrast to earlier plans the Kenyan intends to return to the track in the summer: “I want to run the 5,000 meters at the World Championships since I am the defending champion. My first marathon will then more likely follow in 2023.”

With four women achieving times of sub 67:00 and another seven finishing inside 70:00 the race had a great depth. And there was a national record further back in the field as well: Moira Stewartova finished 12th, improving the Czech Republic’s record to 70:14.

The first split times of the leading men were very fast as well. Kenyan training partners Rodgers Kwemoi and Daniel Mateiko were led by pacemaker Emmanuel Bor and then recorded a 5 k time of 13:39, which indicated a 57:35 finish. The world record stands at 57:31. However as in the women’s race that pace dropped considerably in the windy conditions. The trio passed 10 k in 27:35 and it was then Kwemoi who surged ahead. Whenever Mateiko and Bor seemed to catch up Kwemoi found another gear and went clear again. He then established a big lead in the final section of the race, despite going much slower than in the first half.

“It was a good race. But the wind was very strong and I also felt my hamstring at around 10 k, so I could not go that fast anymore,” said Rodgers Kwemoi, who is a training partner of Eliud Kipchoge in Kaptagat. “My next goal in the half marathon is a time of 58:00. But now I will first focus on qualifying for the World Championships, where I want to run the 10,000 metres. I will run a marathon in future, but only after the Olympics.”

Jakob Kiplimo (UGA) and Girmawit Gebru (ETH) won the fastest ever edition of Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon where the top 6 men and top 2 women were under former course records (58.42 and 64.31).

It was the third time Kiplimo had run a half marathon under 58 minutes (57:56). He won with another incredible solo performance. He dropped the pacers and ran alone after passing 5km in 13.23 and 10km in 26.56. He kept pushing and reached 15km in a new world record of 40.43.

In the women’s race, everything happened in the last kilometre where debutante Girmawit Gebru overtook Hellen Obiri and went on to win in 1:04:14. It was the fourth fastest ever time for the distance. Obiri clocked 1:04:22 in second position, to become the fifth fastest ever.

Sheila Chepkirui (KEN) stopped the clock at 1:04:36 for the seventh fastest ever time. Eilish McColgan (GBR), ran a very smart race to finish in sixth with a new national record of 1:06:26 – surpassing Paula Radcliffe’s mark of 1:06:47.

With 7 men under 58.50 and 3 women under 1h04.40, Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon is the best Half Marathon in the world based on the top 10 average performances (1:04:47). In the women’s all-time list six of the top 10 performances have been run in RAK.

A few years back the race reworked its course to try to minimize the headwinds for which it’s famous. That paid off with 25~30 kph winds from the northwest keeping things controlled in the first 10km and then giving enough of a boost to the pace from there to 35km to help put the top two under the course record of 2:08:01.

For the first 10km the race went out at 2:08:37 but after rounding the 10km turnaround and picking up the tailwind things got faster. The projected time came down to 2:07:30 over the next 5 km and it went down to 2:07:12 before the last pacers stepped off at 30 km.

At 35 km the debuting Kiyoshi Koga the fastest half-marathoner in the field at 1:00:49, put in the race-making move into the wind, opening a gap that initially widened to about 10 seconds. Tetsuya Yoroizaka, a track specialist making his real marathon debut after two training run-effort races overseas, and first-timer Yusuke Nishiyama, the next-fastest half marathoner at 1:00:55, worked together to close it, and just before 40 km they did.

All three hit 40km in 2:01:06, on track for 2:07:45. They could have backed off and left it for a sprint on the track at the end, but within a few hundred metres Nishiyama attacked, dropping Koga in a second and edging away from Yoroizaka. Nishiyama ran alone the rest of the way to break the tape in a world-leading 2:07:47, 14 seconds below the old course record, 6 seconds under the JAAF’s 2:07:53 standard for its Oregon World Championships squad, and just 5 seconds away from the debut marathon national record. Yoroizaka also made it under the old CR in 2:07:55, a PB by almost 17 minutes but missing the Oregon standard by 2 seconds. Koga faded after getting dropped and was caught by Fujimagari, who took 10 seconds off his best for 3rd in 2:08:20, Koga next in a quality 2:08:30 debut.

Women were almost entirely eliminated from the field two weeks before the race when the organizers limited it to people with sub-2:30 times, IPC runners, and locals in order to cope with the omicron situation. That left Tokyo Paralympics blind marathon gold medalist Misato Michishita (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) in the top spot. Like in the men’s marathon Michishita took advantage of having 25 km of nonstop tailwind to be more than a minute ahead of pace to break her own world record at the 35 km turnaround point. But while Nishiyama and the others were able to race each other through the headwind over the final 7 km, Michishita faded, winning in 2:57:20 just over 3 minutes behind her WR. Local Noriko Uchida was the top open division woman in 3:02:26.

Despite tougher standards than for the 2020 Olympic trials, after just three qualifying races 11 Japanese men have already qualified for the 2024 trials by either running sub-2:08, making the top 3 and going sub-2:10, or making 4th-6th and going sub-2:09. With only qualifying race so far 6 women have made the grade, over half the total number who ran the 2020 trials. They say that if you set the bar higher the athletes will respond. So far so good. If Osaka, Tokyo and Nagoya happen expect those numbers to go way up.

Brett Larner, Japan Running News

The 22nd running of the Antarctica Marathon & Half-Marathon took place on King George Island in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica on Sunday, February 6. After deferring the event in 2020 and 2021, the Marathon Tours & Travel (MTT) organizing team produced a second highly successful Antarctica event in 10 days, despite a unique set of circumstances due to the ongoing global pandemic.

Runners faced a race day ahead that would challenge them both physically and mentally. With constantly changing weather that included sleet on the zodiac ride to shore, shifting winds and frequent temperature fluctuations the runners navigated a very demanding course. The marathon and half-marathon occurred in two waves split between the early morning and early afternoon with 144 runners from 17 countries. The men and women winners for both distances were from the United States.

Ryan Beberus moved into first place after the second mile of the marathon and never relinquished the lead, finishing in 3:58:07. In the women’s race at the marathon distance, there was a three-way battle through the first 18 miles, with Ember Verma ultimately moving into the lead and winning with a time of 4:22:52. Close behind Ember were Mary Kauffman and Sarah Faubion, claiming sixth and seventh place overall in the race.

In the half-marathon, Karl Alhgren earned the win and his second Seven Continents Club Finishers Medal. Karl had previously completed a marathon on all seven continents and has now completed a half-marathon on all seven continents. He joins six additional men and women who have accomplished this goal twice. Stacy Martin won the women’s race by a 20-minute margin on a day where more than 50% of the overall finishers were women.

“That was the hardest race I have ever run and yet, also my favorite race ever,” was the common phrase amongst participants.

Beating the odds as race after race cancels amid rising COVID numbers, the Osaka International Women’s Marathon went ahead as planned in great conditions along with the Osaka Half Marathon.

Osaka local and favourite Mizuki Matsuda proved unstoppable again, running with three male pacers on mid-2:19 pace most of the way, dropping lone competitor Mao Uesugi with a surge at 25km, fading over the final 10km but hanging on to break the course record with a PB of 2:20:52 that moved her up to fifth on the all-time Japanese list.

In six marathon starts to date Matsuda has won Osaka three times, Nagoya once, and placed 5th in Berlin, all between 2:20:52 and 2:22:44. Not many people have that kind of record of success, anywhere. With this performance she’s all but a lock to be named to the Oregon World Championships team, where she’ll get a chance to show what she can do against real international competition. But having been in the same position for the Tokyo Olympics before getting bumped off the team by rival Mao Ichiyama in Nagoya, you can be sure Matsuda knows the score. Her tears and very clipped “I didn’t meet my goals here” reply to an interview question right after the finish showed she isn’t getting too comfortable yet.

After getting dropped at 25km Uesugi struggled to hold the same pace on her own as all three pacers went with Matsuda and the B-group runners, also with male pacers, came up from behind. Having started with a PB of 2:24:52 Uesugi stayed on sub-2:20 pace until almost 30km before starting to slow, but she hung on well enough to keep in 2nd place in a big PB of 2:22:29, the most impressive run of the day. “I’m really, really happy!” she smiled through tears post-race.

From Brett Larner, Japan Running News

The 21st running of the Antarctica Marathon & Half-Marathon took place on King George Island in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica on Friday, January 28.

After deferring the event in 2020 and 2021, the Marathon Tours & Travel (MTT) organizing team produced a highly successful event despite a unique set of circumstances due to the ongoing global pandemic.

On race morning, runners awoke to a beautiful sunny day with temperatures steady at 38F (3C) and light winds for the race on King George Island. The marathon and half-marathon occurred in two waves split between the early morning and early afternoon with 138 runners from 14 countries.

Priit Jaagant of Estonia led from the start to garner the victory in a time of 3:56:28. Jaagant also claimed his Seven Continents Club Finisher Medal, one of 22 on this voyage. He is the first Estonian to complete the goal of running a marathon on each of the seven continents. Sandy Lam from Franklin, Indiana USA claimed the women’s title with a time of 4:04:40 and securing third place overall.

Organized by Marathon Tours & Travel of Boston, MA this annual event fills its maximum field of 200 runners two years in advance. For the first time in its history, the company invested in two back-to-back trips and races. Once the first voyage arrives back in Ushuaia, Argentina after their 10-day excursion, the second voyage will board that same afternoon.

We are full of joy and pride that, despite corona, nearly 600 finishers made the 17th edition of the Neujahrsmarathon Zürich a complete success. We are very satisfied with the implementation of the protection concept and grateful for the overwhelming cooperation and compliance with all rules among the participants.

Due to the mild temperatures and the absence of rain, snow or ice, we expected record breaking weather at the beginning. Unfortunately, thick fog then made the race massively more challenging. Nevertheless, in addition to six annual world records, we were able to celebrate a course record as well.

In the marathon, last edition’s second-placed finisher, Philipp Arnold, won in 2:39:03. He finished 8 minutes and 12 seconds ahead of the second-placed Leendert van der Lugt from Holland. This is Philipps’ third win at the Neujahrsmarathon Zürich, making him the record winner of the event. Nicolas Kipfmüller finished in third place in 2:48:10.

The women’s race was much closer. Maja Hügli won the marathon in 3:24:16, only 39 seconds ahead of Janine Frei. The two had a neck-and-neck race, but in the third lap Maja secured a small lead, which she was able to hold until the end of the race. The podium was rounded off by third placed Deirdre Keane from the USA who finished the race in 3:42:20.