Charalampos Pitsolis crosses the finish line to win the 41st Athens Marathon, in Athens, Sunday. [Yorgos Karahalis/AP]
Charalampos Pitsolis claimed victory in the 41st Athens Marathon on Sunday, finishing with a time of 2 hours, 18 minutes, and 56 seconds.
The 31-year-old Pitsolis overtook fellow Greek runner Panagiotis Karaiskos in the final kilometers of the race. Karaiskos, who had led for most of the course, finished second with a time of 2:19:50. The two shared an embrace at the finish line. Georgos Menis completed the podium, placing third with a time of 2:21:40.
In the women’s race, last year’s runner-up Stamatia Noula set a personal best and a national championship record, winning in 2:40:19.
The race, now rebranded as the “Athens Marathon. The Authentic,” commemorates the legendary feat of a Greek soldier who, in 490 BCE, is said to have run from Marathon to Athens – a distance of about 40 kilometers – to announce the Athenian victory over the Persians before collapsing and dying upon arrival.
The marathon concludes at the Panathenaic Stadium, a U-shaped marble reconstruction of an ancient arena with a seating capacity of about 80,000, which hosted the track events for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.