Runner Costas Gelaouzos became the fastest Greek in the 38th Athens Authentic Marathon Race held on Sunday, breaking a long-standing record with 2:16:49 on the course that starts in Marathon, East Attica and ends at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.
The record Panathenaikos’ athlete broke was that of Nikos Polias, who finished the race during the Olympic Games of 2004 Athens with 02:17:56. Polias was among those congratulating Gelaouzos at the Panathenaic Stadium.
As results were awaited by the Hellenic Athletics Federation (SEGAS) for the race overall, results on the Greek runners showed that Panathinaikos’ Gelaouzos was followed by Panagiotis Bourikas of Messiniakos sports team with 02:22:33 and Charalambos Pitsolis of the Ilissos sports team with 02:24:05.
Among Greek women, runner Gloria Privilegio of the Glyfada sports team came in first with 02:41:30, her first victory in the race ever. She was followed by Katerina Assimakopoulou of the Mykonos sports team with 02:48:12 and Vassiliki Konstantopoulou of the Neapoli sports team with 02:51:32.
This year’s Athens Authentic Marathon is organized by SEGAS and the Region of Attica, with the support of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, the Athens and Marathon Municipalities and the financial support of OPAP SA gaming company.
The scheduling this year – the first after a hiatus in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic – included 5km and 10km races on Saturday and Sunday, with all three split into two running groups starting slightly apart for health safety reasons.
A total of 27,800 runners of 100 different nationalities from 83 countries were registered in both the Athens road races and the Marathon races. Of these, 81 pct were Greek nationals and 19 pct foreign ones. In addition, 82 pct reside in Greece and 18 pct came from abroad.