A record 15,000 runners took part in this year’s two-day Opap Limassol Marathon, which ended on Sunday afternoon.

According to the organisers, the largest sporting event in Cyprus welcomed runners from Cyprus and abroad in support of the Karaiskakio Foundation as well as a number of other causes and charities.
Participants were able, through the givengain.com platform, to choose and raise money for the charity of their choice.

In total, over 15,000 runners ran in the six routes, 2,000 of whom came from 70 different countries.

The marathon races kicked off on Saturday with the 5km Primetel course, followed by the Andrey and Julia Dashin’s Foundation Youth Race.

On Sunday, the main event, the Opap marathon course of 42 km, the Muskita Half Marathon of 21 km, the Petrolina energy race of 10 km, and the Atomic Road 5 km were held.

First in the main marathon men’s race was Britain’s Matthew Blunden who finished with a time of 02:31:12, followed by Israel’s Igor Vinogradov with 02:33:11 and Poland’s Krzysztof Joaworski with 02:41:56.

The women’s top three went to Maria Sotiriou from Cyprus with 03:05:04, Karima Ouizguret from France 03:16:02 and Irina Masanova from Russia with 03:20:07.

Limassol Mayor Nikos Nicolaides said that this year’s marathon was one of the best ever.
“The municipality of Limassol feels proud of the city’s marathon,” he said.

From the sponsors, Opap chairman Spyros Spyrou, spoke about the huge success and the massive attendance.

“The record participation we had this year makes us happy, but it also creates more responsibilities for even better and bigger events in the future,” he said.

“Our vision, he continued, is for the Opap Limassol Marathon to become one of the most popular in Europe, since it combines the advantages of a flat course and ideal weather conditions.”

Even though there was some rain over the past two days, he said this did not stop any of the participants.