The annual Athens Marathon will feature a record number of participants and events on Sunday in celebration of the 2,500-year anniversary of the famous battle that gave the event its name, organisers say.
And despite the strain on Greek finances from a national debt crisis that has brought sweeping cutbacks, the budget for this year’s race was boosted to €1.5 million from €900,000 last year.
Some 12,000 runners are expected to participate in Sunday’s 42-kilometre race, a threefold increase over last year, raising operators’ hopes that the event will become a tourist and cultural attraction in its own right.
“The 2,500-year anniversary of the battle can create an international movement,” the head of the Greek tourism organisation Nicholas Kanellopoulos told reporters in a recent presentation.
“This famous battle is a symbol of victory over totalitarianism,” said Greek State Sports Secretary Panos Bitsaxis, referring to the defeat of the Persian empire by citizen soldiers from the democratic city states of Athens and Platea.
According to legend, the distance from Marathon to Athens was first run by Pheidippides, an Athenian messenger who in 490 BC dashed to the city to announce victory over the Persians, before dying of exhaustion. Run on a four-lane concrete avenue through the urban districts of east Athens with a finish at the all-marble Panathenaic Stadium, site of the 1896 Olympics, the race is a challenge for runners as much of it is uphill.
The Marathon became one of the main competitive events when the Olympic Games were revived in 1896. It still culminates at the Panathenaic Stadium where the first modern Olympics were held.
Related events this year include a sports conference by world marathon association AIMS, an exhibition on the Battle of Marathon and a ceremony to honour past winners including Britain’s Ron Hill, Italy’s Stefano Baldini and American Katherine Switzer, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon.
Participants include last year’s men’s winner Josephat Kipkurui along with fellow Kenyans Paul Lekuraa, Jackson Koech, Jacob Kiplagat Yator, Robert Matu Mwangi and Julius Kiplagat Korir.
On the women’s side contestants include Japan’s Noguchi Mizuki, Ethiopian Ashu Kasim, Irina Permitina of Russia and Kenyans Mary Ptikany, Florence Chepkurui and Evelyn Kimouria.