BEIRUT (LBN) – The 50th WMC Marathon started on November 10 in Beirut, Lebanon, with the Preliminary and Technical Meeting, the training and the Opening Ceremony. 69 athletes (46 men and 23 women gathered in Lebanon for this important event of the CISM Sports Calendar and attended the Opening Ceremony which was held in presence of Brigadier General Aboubacar Biro Condé, CISM Board of Directors member and Official CISM Representative of the event; Brigadier General Georges El Hed, Chief of Delegation of Lebanon to CISM; Colonel Mohammed Ahmed Suliman Taib, PCSC Track and Field; the Chiefs of Mission of the 15 participating countries as well as local and international high authorities and fans.

The military race was included in the civilian marathon. More than 47.000 people participated in this mega event organized by the city of Beirut.

As it’s often the case in the CISM Marathon events, the Polish ladies were once again the strongest. The Polish Olha Kalenderova Ochal was the fastest yesterday as she finished the race in 2.38.17 with a 30 seconds lead on her teammate Aleksandra Lisowska, who already took the bronze medal in the previous edition in Ottawa 2017. The Lithuanian Vaida Zusinaite Nekriosiene finished on the third step of the podium in 2.38.38, only 10 second behind the silver medallist Lisowska. The top 5 was completed by the two Chinese, Yugui Ma and Chuan Luo, respectively ranked fourth and fifth of the event.

With these individual results, it’s no surprise to see that Poland also won the women’s team event. Congratulations to Olha Kalenderova Ochal, Aleksandra Lisowska, Karolina Pilarska and Monika Stefanowicz for this impressive result. Serbia (Culafic, Jovanovic and Bubnjevis) was ranked second while the Spanish team, composed of Maria Libertad Centeno Nevado, Trinidad Romero Villar and Monica Falgueras Velazquez took bronze.

In the men’s event, the Polish delegation had great expectations before the event as the podium was 100% composed of Polish athletes last year in Ottawa. But the things didn’t go as planned for the Polish team. The Moroccan runner Mohamed Reda Al Aaraby was this time faster than the other competitors (2.10.41) and he ended the Polish domination by grabbing the gold medal of the individual event with an almost 4 minutes lead ahead of the Polish Marcin Chabowski who finished the race in 2.14.40. Another Moroccan completed the podium as Hamza Sahli grabbed the bronze medal of the event (2.17.33).

Morocco also won the team event’ gold medal thanks to excellent performance of Mohamed Reda El Aaraby, Hamza Sahli, Montacer Zaghou and Mouhssin Moubssit. The Polish team, composed of Marcin Chabowski, Arkadiusz Gardzielewsk and Artur Pelo, had to settle for the second place while Chile (Leslie Encina, Mauricio Flandez, Luis Zagal and Marcelo Fuentes) grabbed the bronze medal.

The competition was directly followed by the Closing and Awarding Ceremony which was held in presence of Brigadier General Aboubacar Biro Condé, CISM Board of Directors member and Official CISM Representative of the event; Brigadier General Georges El Hed, Chief of Delegation of Lebanon to CISM; Colonel Mohammed Ahmed Suliman Taib, PCSC Track and Field; the Chiefs of Mission of the 15 participating countries as well as local and international high authorities and fans.

The CISM Flag was handed over to the Chinese delegation which will organize the next edition of the WMC Marathon in the framework of the 7th CISM World Summer Games.

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