Athens Classic Marathon - Distance Running magazine

Athens Classic MarathonFollowing in thefootstepsMP and Greek anti-fascist resistance iconGrigoris Lambrakis marching alone in thebanned Marathon–Athens Peace Rally onSunday April 21 1963, one month before hisassassinationBy Kostas PangopoulosThe Athens Classic Marathon (ACM) hasbeen organized every year since 1983 by theHellenic Athletics Federation (SEGAS). It isdedicated to the memory of theBalkan athletics champion andpacifist, Grigoris Lambrakis. It is ahugely popular race and touristevent, held every year on the secondSunday of November.But the roots of the race go back wellbefore 1983. The story which brought theMarathon to life was enacted here in 490BC, when the ancient Athenian soldierand message bearer Pheidippides ran fromthe battlefield at Marathon to delivernews of victory to the waiting Athenians.This was the legend used by Michel Bréal as aspringboard to deliver a long distancerunning event to the programme ofthe inaugural modernOlympic Games held in Athens in 1896. SpyrosLouis became the first Olympic MarathonChampion in that race, running over the sameground. Lately Marathon champions of the 1969and 1982 European Athletics Championships,1997 IAAF World Championshipsand 2004 Olympic Games havefollowed in his footsteps, makingthe Athens Classic Marathon anoutstanding race which attractsmore than 20,000 runners fromGreece and 100 other countries allover the world.The Athens Classic Marathon hasunique status, being held on theauthentic Olympic Marathoncourse. The point-to-point coursestarts at the Municipality ofMarathon, runs around the Tomb of the fallenMarathon warriors, and passes through variousAttica municipalities to finish in Athens, inside thebeautiful marble stadium in which events of thefirst Modern Olympic Games were held, thePanathenaikon Stadium. While the ancient historyof this race runs back more than 2500 years, itsrelatively recent history started in 1896.On 2 October 1955 Stelios Kyriakidis, Greek winnerof the 1946 Boston Marathon started the 1stinternational Marathon Race to be held since 1896over the authentic course. It was followed byeditions in 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963 and 1965.The highlight of this series came in 1961, when thewinner of the race was Abebe Bikila, just a yearafter his iconic barefoot win in the 1960 OlympicMarathon in Rome.From 1967 to 1980 the race was held annually,recognised also as the Greek Marathon NationalChampionship and moved to “Olympic Day”,6 April.Continued on page 35Distance Running | 2012 Edition 4 33

Your Masterpiece.Emperor Trajan113Emperor Maxentius312Xavier Lefort2013Giuseppe Sacconi1911Yumi Yazawa2013 1917/03/2013ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME. www.maratonadiroma.it

Athens Classic MarathonContinued from page 33From 1973 to 1980 a second internationalMarathon race was also held on the authenticcourse, every September. One race from this periodstands out, when in 1969 the first five Olympicfinishers of the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexicotook part. The winner was Briton Bill Adcocks in arecord time of 2:11:07 which remained unbeatenuntil the 2004 Olympics. From 1972 the race hasbeen open to all runners, and participationgradually rose to almost a thousand. The firstwoman participated in the race in 1974. In 1982,the organizer of the “Original Run”, GeorgeKourmouzis, represented the Athens Marathon atthe Establishing Congress of AIMS held in London(and participated in the first Board meeting).The 30th anniversary being celebrated dates fromthis most recent series starting from when SEGASdecided to organize the “1st Popular MarathonRace Grigoris Lambrakis”. Since then participationhas gradually increased to 5800 in 2004, andmore than 18,000 in 2011.The running clubs of Greece, known as “HealthRunners Clubs”, played a key role in thedevelopment of the race. In 2001, just before the2004 Athens Olympics, a major Greek bank, AlphaBank, offered its sponsorship to the race giving amajor boost to the promotion of the event and theimprovement of services provided to runners.Since 2006 the Athens Classic Marathon has madeprogress in all fields and is widely recognized bythe Greek State, other international marathonraces, IAAF, AIMS and above all participatingrunners. The efforts of SEGAS regarding thedevelopment of the event have been put under theauspices of the President of the Hellenic Republic(since 2006) and UNESCO (since 2011) featuringthe historic importance of this race and itscontribution to Peace and Friendship amongnations. In 2011, OPAP s.a., the leading GamingOperator in Greece, became the major sponsor ofthe ACM until 2016.The ACM record holders are the MoroccanAbdelkerim Boubker (2.11’.40” in 2011) and theLithuanian Rasa Drazdaukaite (2.31’.06” in 2010),while the record holders over the authentic courseare the 2004 Olympic winners Stefano Baldini (ITA)with 2:10:55 and Mizuki Noguchi (JPN) with2:26:20). The Greek course record holders areMichalis Parmakis (2:20:48 in 2010) andKonstantina Kefala(2:40:36 in 2010) butNikos Pollias ran2:17:56 over the coursein the 2004 Olympics.He also won the ACM in1993, 1995, 1998 and2000.IAAF awarded the Athens Classic Marathona “Gold Label” in 2010, in recognition of thehistorical and symbolic significance of therace marking the 2500th anniversary of theBattle of Marathon. Fewer than 25 racesworldwide held a Gold Label in 2010.Runners also recognised the importance ofthe occasion and flocked to Athens to takepart. Participation and race records werebroken as 12,000 Marathon runners trod inthe footsteps of ancient and modern legend,in the presence of major Marathon stars likeStefano Baldini, Joan Benoit-Samuelson,Constantina Dita, Rosa Mota, Ron Hill, KatherineSwitzer and Abel Anton.Today the Athens Classic Marathon is a four-dayevent, held over the second weekend of November,including an expo running from Thursday toSaturday inside the Zappeion Megaron in thehistoric city centre. The Athens Classic Marathonopening ceremony is held on Saturday, inside thearchaeological site of the Marathon Tomb, andleads on to the Lighting of the Marathon Flame.The Flame is a new symbol of AIMS which annuallytravels around the world reminding people of thevalues of the Marathon movement. The Flame hasalready been hosted in Boston, Chicago, Toronto,Quito, Shanghai, Xiamen, Mumbai, Belgrade,Genoa, Prague, Omsk, Vienna andPietermaritzburg. The AIMS MarathonSymposium, held on the Saturdayafternoon, is an annual internationalseminar established in 2007 by AIMS,SEGAS, IAAF and the Municipality ofMarathon, which hosts the event atthe venue of the historic start of therace, on the eve of the Athens ClassicMarathon. The Symposium bringsmore than 50 representatives of otherinternational marathon races toAthens every year.The shorter road races of 5K and 10K, 1000m (forParalympic athletes) and 700m (for kids), takeplace on Sunday morning in parallel with theMarathon. The average temperature during raceweek varies from 11–19C, with a 10% chance ofrain.Athens Classic Marathon registration opens in earlyMarch every year and closes when the limit isreached. In 2012, in celebration of the 30thanniversary, the Athens Classic Marathon expectsmore than 30,000 runners in all races.To register go to: www.athensclassicmarathon.grDistance Running | 2012 Edition 4 35

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