BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
18/05/2009
Belarusian runners take top honors at Riga Marathon
Oleg Gur of Belarus won Nordea Riga Marathon on Sunday, whereas Katarina Demidova (Belarus) won the women's marathon, as the organizers of the marathon informed LETA.
Gur clocked two hours 18 minutes 35 seconds. Rick Cuelemans of Belgium finished second, and Latvia's Raivis Zakis third.
Demidova finished the distance in two hours 47 minutes 30 seconds, Kirsi Kovacs of Finland placed second and Michelle Mitchell of Russia third.
Joel Kosgei Komen of Kenia finished first in half-marathon, whereas Latvia's Edgars Sumskis won the five-kilometer event.
According to Nordea, 8593 runners from 35 countries, or 3300 runners more than last year, participated in Riga Marathon this year.
The majority chose to run the five-kilometer distance, 1504 runners took part in half-marathon, and 649 did the full distance.
Most runners were from Latvia, followed by Finland, Great Britain, Estonia, Italy, Denmark, Lithuania, Germany, Sweden, United States, Poland and Belgium.
The first Riga Marathon was organized in 1991, it was renamed Nordea Riga Marathon in 2007. It is the largest marathon in the Baltic countries, last year more than 5000 runners from 35 countries took part in the marathon.
Source:
http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/baltic_news/?doc=3165
Archive
Subscribe Daily Newsletter:
Belarus News and Analysis Donate:
