By Natasha Pavlopoulou
ATHENS, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Brimin Kipkorir Misoi from Kenya won the 36th Athens Marathon on Sunday in 2:10:56, followed by Ethiopians Tiruneh Workneh Tesfa in 2:12:52 and Gereme Mengist Azmeraw in 2:13:20.
Shelmith Muriuki also from Kenya won the women's race and was 17th overall, clocking 2:36:46, beating her compatriot Rebby Koech (2:38:54) and Greece's Eleftheria Petroulaki (2:46:09), who was running her first Marathon.
The first Greek to cross the finish line was Konstantinos Gkelaouzos who finished with a time of 2:21:55, defeating last year's 2:27:21 and making the 7th best performance for overall.
Around 300 runners from China participated in the event. Ma Liangwu is the first Chinese to finish the race in 2:44:47.
Chinese ambassador to Greece Zhang Qiyue and many other Chinese Embassy staffs participated in this year's 5 km race.
In Athens, the start signal for the 10 km race was given at 8:30 a.m. (local time) by the Mayor of the Greek capital, Georgios Kaminis, at Syntagma Square. Earlier, at 7:45 am, it was the start of the 5 km race.
The classical route of the Athens Marathon started at 9:00 am in Marathon, in an emotionally charged atmosphere, as it passed through areas devastated by the wildfires who struck East Attica in July. Marathon Mayor Ilias Psinakis dedicated the race to the 99 victims of the fires in Mati, the place where one of the most tragic chapters of the summer fires played on. Many of the runners wore green headbands in support of a project launched by the race organizers to regenerate the region with trees along that section of the course.
This year, over 55,000 athletes from 105 countries and regions flooded Attica area to compete in one of the most prestigious races in the world, along with other races for children and people with special needs.
According to the organizers of the event they were expecting to break the participation record for the Athens Marathon. Hotels in Attica were at 70 percent occupancy, and visitors from all over the world were expected to spend million of euros during their stay in Greece.
The classic Marathon route begins near the tumulus erected for the Greek dead from the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC and ends in the Panathenaic Stadium (Kallimarmaro) in the heart of Athens, the site of the first modern Olympics in 1896.
The Athens Marathon is established in honor of herald Pheidippides, who according to the legend, ran from the battlefield to Athens in order to announce the Greeks' victory against the Persians 2,500 years ago and died of exhaustion.
