Olivera Jevtic and Edwin Kiplagat Kitum win Belgrade Marathon

(Edwin Kiplagat Kitum and Olivera Jevtic, Photo by Tanjug)

The winner in the men’s competition of the 26th Belgrade Marathon, Kenya’s Edwin Kiplagat Kitum who speaks very little English, kept repeating “hot, hot” and “tough course”, the four words that best explain the winning results in the marathon and half-marathon which are far from the course records of Kenyan Japhet Kosgei (2:10,54; 2006) and Romanian Christina Pomacu (2:29,44; 2001), reads a release at the Belgrade Marathon official website.

Edwin Kiplagat Kitum triumphed over 395 other runners with 2:19,34 and finished over five minutes ahead of his more experienced countryman Eliud Kiber Kirui (2:24,40), while the third-ranked Boash Mayaka Ongaga, also from Kenya, was over eleven minutes behind (2:30,43).

In this light, Olivera Jevtic’s winning result of 2:36,12 is a real achievement. She placed fifth in the overall ranking and it is a real shame that she failed to break the national record of 2:35,46 she herself holds since 2007, even though at the 40km mark she had the record-breaking time.

– I am satisfied with this result and ranking even though I did not better my personal best at this course. I have most likely lost the new best time in the last two kilometres which were uphill and in very strong sun. It was much warmer than 2007 when I set the course record. I don’t regret taking part in the Belgrade Marathon because it is always lovely to win in Belgrade – said Olivera Jevtic.

Her potentially greatest rival Kenyan Celina Chemunge Chelimo failed to keep the pace with the Serbian record-holder (2:25,23) and dropped out of the race at the 30th km. The second place went to Serbia’s Lidija Mikloš (3:05,59) and the third to Poland’s Diana Golek (2:36,12).

Among the 2,373 participants in the half-marathon, the most successful were Serbia’s Olympic marathoners from the 2012 London Games – Darko Zivanović (1:08,37) and Ana Subotic (1:19,35).

The start for this year’s Belgrade Marathon was given by the best athlete of the 20th century Carl Lewis, Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, the Belgrade Marathon Ltd president and famous basketball player Aleksandar Sasa Djordjevic and Ambassador of the European Union in Belgrade Vincent Degert who then joined the marathoners.

Kurir daily's 5km "Run for Life" had over 10.000 participants amongst whom many, including celebrities, ran for charity.