The favourable weather conditions at the 32nd Athens Marathon – the Authentic brought the best out of Felix Kandie who registered a new record in the classic course from Marathonas to Athens on the weekend.

The Kenyan clocked two hours, 10 minutes and 36 seconds to beat the previous record by 19 seconds and win the prestigious gold medal at the race’s birthplace.

The previous for the course record had been set in the Athens 2004 Olympics by Italy’s Stefano Baldini.

Kandie beat the previous race-record-holder Raymond Bett to second by almost two minutes, with Kiptanui Chobei in third and last year’s winner Hillary Yego in fourth.

“This is my first time in this race and I had aimed at a top-three finish. I am ever so happy to have won! The atmosphere here with the fans is so welcoming,” said Kandie, covered with a laurel wreath.

Christoforos Merousis from the island of Chios, was the first among the Greeks to win the national championship, for a second year in a row.

Naomi Maiyo was the first among women to reach the finishing line at the Panathenaic Stadium after two hours 41 minutes and five seconds.

Tens of thousands lined up the course along the 42 kilometres, adding to the ever-rising profile of the race that as of this year is named “Authentic” to remind everyone where this sporting event traces its root.

“This is an opportunity for people from the world over to get to visit Athens in November, with visiting rates already on the rise. Thousands of people have arrived for the event and every year their number grows. More and more top Marathon runners visit Athens to run the Authentic course following the promotion we have done around the world,” said Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni who attended the race.

AIMS president, 68, finishes his first Athens Marathon

Coming out of the race was also the uplifting story of the president of the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS), Paco Borao.

He finished the Athens Marathon at the age of 68, running the course for the first time in his life.

The Spanish official, also the head of the Valencia Marathon organising committee, had told Kathimerini earlier this year that despite all the difficulties that the circumstances and one of the toughest Marathons in the world created for him, he would finish the race from Marathonas to central Athens setting an example to runners the world over.

Borao was greeted at the finishing line at the Panathenaic Stadium by friends and AIMS officials who held up a banner congratulating him which read “You did it your way!”

“Borao’s time of five hours, 15 minutes was extraordinary given not only his age but also the fact he had not run a Marathon for 22 years,” said Greece’s top Marathon coach Maria Polyzou, who run alongside him.

“This is the kind of time that men 10 or 15 years younger would clock at their first attempt at the authentic course,” she explained.

Polyzou, who is the Greek record holder in the Marathon, praised the Spaniard’s effort stressing that he had always said any Marathon runner should run the authentic course at least once, and now he has fulfilled it himself, adding to the publicity of the Athens event.

Source: Kathimeirni