{"id":537,"date":"2018-09-18T16:06:49","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T16:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/?p=537"},"modified":"2018-09-18T16:06:49","modified_gmt":"2018-09-18T16:06:49","slug":"minsk-half-marathon-2018-proves-successful-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/news\/minsk-half-marathon-2018-proves-successful-again","title":{"rendered":"Minsk Half Marathon 2018 proves successful again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Minsk<\/a><\/p>\n

Nearly 35,000 runners took part in this year’s edition of the Minsk Half Marathon on 9 September, an event which is expanding in participation and reputation with every passing year.<\/p>\n

Minsk Half Marathon- Running for All<\/h3>\n

The Minsk Half Marathon was bestowed with a five-star rating by European Athletics Running for All – an integral part of our road running strategy – and the event was also given Bronze Label Road Race status by the IAAF last year.<\/p>\n

From 600 runners in the inaugural edition, almost 35,000 runners took part in the country\u2019s biggest road race – and an event which is one of the most important on the Belarusian sporting calendar.<\/p>\n

The race took part alongside the \u2018City Day\u2019 celebrations to mark the founding of Minsk in the 11th century and was part of a wider sport and fitness festival in the capital. The programme also included a 3×3 basketball tournament and a UEFA Nations League football at the newly refurbished Dinamo Stadium which will be staging events at the second edition of the European Games in 2019, including Dynamic New Athletics.<\/p>\n

From elite runners to recreational runners and politicians and celebrities, nearly 35,000 runners took part across the three events: a half marathon, as well as races over 10.55km and 5.5km. The field also included representation from 53 countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, China and Japan.<\/p>\n

The race is a key part of the government’s drive to promote sport and health in Belarus. The race also had a palpable impact on the local economy again and the event is being firmly embraced beyond the running fraternity as is exemplified by the volunteer recruitment drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started organising the Minsk Half Marathon, we assumed there would be a lot of volunteers – but we did not think there would be quite so many!\u201d said Mayor of Minsk Andrey Shorets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s nice that not only Minsk residents, but also guests of the capital could share with us the joy of this holiday.\u201d<\/p>\n

The elite field included an expanded elite field to take on the leading Belarusians. There were high hopes of a fifth home win in the women\u2019s race featuring a strong contingent including the recently crowned European marathon champion Volha Mazuronak but Kenya\u2019s Sheila Jerotich became the first non-Belarusian winner, edging out home favourite and former European 3000m steeplechase silver medallist Svetlana Kudzelich – 72:02 to 72:03.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, I would like to thank everyone, especially the organisers of the Minsk Half Marathon. I really enjoyed the race!\u201d said Jerotich. It’s great that the weather was good. And my colleague [Svetlana Kudzelich] helped me. It was thanks to her that I won.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less than a month after winning an eventful marathon at the European Championships Berlin, Mazuronak – a former two-time winner of this race – had not sufficiently recovered from those exertions and had to settle for fifth in 73:58.<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s race, Ethiopia\u2019s Abebe Negewo pipped another former two-time winner Kenya<\/a>\u2019s Hillary Kiptum in another close finish – 62:37 to 62:38.<\/p>\n

“I am happy that I took part in this competitions. I am in Belarus for the first time and you have very good and kind people,” said the winner. “I had a strong contender from Kenya. But I trained a lot, I knew my time. And I am very glad that I was able to cross the finish line first today!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly 35,000 runners took part in this year’s edition of the Minsk Half Marathon on 9 September, an event which is expanding in participation and reputation with every passing year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[102,20,27,7,106,72,1],"tags":[251,254],"class_list":["post-537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopia","category-europe","category-events","category-featured","category-half","category-kenya","category-news","tag-251","tag-minsk-half-marathon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":540,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537\/revisions\/540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}