{"id":33,"date":"2008-11-26T11:33:26","date_gmt":"2008-11-26T11:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/malta\/?p=33"},"modified":"2012-11-26T11:40:57","modified_gmt":"2012-11-26T11:40:57","slug":"malta-marathon-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/malta\/news\/malta-marathon-2008.htm","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Balzan is Malta’s Fastest Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jonathan<\/a>A BMW Malta Marathon and Half-Marathon that opened up with a record number of applications \u2013 1050 at the last count \u2013 was enlivened by the setting of a new marathon record by Joshua Kipchumba.<\/p>\n

It was clear from early on that the Kenyan, winner two years ago with a time of 2:21, was going to go below the 2:19:08 that the Sicily based Moroccan athlete Abdel Kebir Marchanne set back in 2005 such was the pace that he imposed. The questions was by how much.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it was just by over thirty one seconds, although the initial impression had been that it was going to be much more than that. \u201cI think I can run faster,\u201d Kipchumba himself admitted afterwards \u201cbut I\u2019m still extremely happy with that time and to have broken the record.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the start, Kipchumba went into the lead with fellow Kenyan Julius Kirwa Choge and Burundi\u2019s Joachim Nshimirmana following close by. At various stages both made moves to try and overtake the leader but Kipchumba was always more than ready for them.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, his winning time of 2:18:37 was almost two minutes faster than that of Kirwa Choge – whose 2:20:35 finishing time would have been enough to win the previous edition of the Malta Marathon \u2013 whilst Nshimirmana was third with a time of 2:20:59.<\/p>\n

The day\u2019s fine weather aided the athletes and Kipchumba admitted that \u201cconditions were almost ideal. It was slightly on the hot side but I don\u2019t really mind that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another who certainly didn\u2019t mind the weather conditions was Jonathan Balzan who was cheered on not only as he was the first Maltese to come in but also because he did so in record fashion.<\/p>\n

In fact, no other Maltese athlete has managed to complete the marathon in a faster time than Balzan\u2019s 2:26:29.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that I\u2019ve always dreamed about,\u201d Balzan said whilst hugging his family. \u201cI\u2019ve worked so hard for this moment but to be able to set such a fast time is for me incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balzan was also full of praise for his coach Roger Zammit. \u201cThis year he has changed my training because he felt that he needed to modernize it a bit. He\u2019s always had great confidence in me and we planned this race to the smallest detail. I was aiming for a time of 2:27:30 so this time is even better than what I had planned for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously I\u2019ve got to thank Roger as well as my sponsors www.enjoytherun.com, Ronhill and Diadora. Above all, I have to thank my family for their support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hili Sets Personal Best
\nAnother extremely pleased athlete at the finishing line was Carmen Hili who was not only the fastest woman in the marathon but also registered a personal best of 3:01:48.<\/p>\n

She also captured the admiration of all those around her when, asked about her reaction on her win, she said that \u201cI have to start off by thanking God because without Him this wouldn\u2019t have been possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hili then continued by admitting that it was tough for her because \u201cI had to run most of the race on my own\u201d before concluding that \u201cI have to thank my family, my sponsors of www.enjoytherun.com, Ronhill and Diadora for all their support.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Douglas Retains Half-Marathon
\nJames Douglas retained the half marathon that he won last year when he completed the distance in 1:09:20. \u201cI started off very fast, opened a lead after the first mile and didn\u2019t look back after that,\u201d the affable Briton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a very tough year for me as I\u2019ve changed home twice and also changed job. Your running tends to suffer in such situations and I haven\u2019t had as much time to train as I would have liked. Still, my coach told me that I could do a sub 1:10 time so it is pleasing to have proved him right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second place went to Ciaran Doherty (1:10:30) ahead of the first Maltese in the form of Brian Magri (1:11:33). \u201cI started very fast and was second behind Douglas,\u201d Magri said. \u201cThen Robert (Attard) caught up with me and it became tough to hold him off. Doherty surprised us a bit because we weren\u2019t expecting him to overtake us but we quickly realised that he, like Douglas, wasn\u2019t going to be caught.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom that point on, for me it was a question of staying in front of Attard and I just about managed that. This is my best ever time in the half marathon. I have to thank my wife for her support and patience. She does complain when I go out training but I think that she realises that sports is something that I cannot do without.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veteran Maltese runner Carol Walsh was the first woman in the half-marathon even though she wasn\u2019t in the mood to celebrate. \u201cMy son was involved in an accident two weeks ago and I\u2019ve spent a lot of time in hospital. I couldn\u2019t miss the half-marathon although partly I took part to take my mind off of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angela Sammut came second with Joelle Cortis in third.<\/p>\n

Results
\nFull Marathon – Men
\nJoshua Kipchumba \u2013 Kenya – 2:18:37
\nJulius Kirwa Choge \u2013 Kenya – 2:20:35
\nJoachim Nshimirmana \u2013 Burundi \u2013 2:20:59<\/p>\n

Full Marathon \u2013 Women
\nCarmen Hili \u2013 St. Patrick\u2019s AC \/ Malta \u2013 3:01:48
\nMarisa Muscat – St. Patrick\u2019s AC \/ Malta \u2013 3:16:17
\nPetra Schiesewitz \u2013 Germany \u2013 3:28:27<\/p>\n

Half Marathon \u2013 Men
\nJames Douglas \u2013 Great Britain \u2013 1:09:20
\nCiaran Doherty \u2013 Ireland \u2013 1:10:30
\nBrian Magri \u2013 Pembroke Athleta \/ Malta \u2013 1:11:33<\/p>\n

Half Marathon \u2013 Women
\nCarol Walsh – Pembroke Athleta \/ Malta \u2013 1:22:17<\/p>\n

Contributor Paul Grech<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A BMW Malta Marathon and Half-Marathon that opened up with a record number of applications \u2013 1050 at the last count \u2013 was enlivened by the setting of a new marathon record by Joshua Kipchumba. It was clear from early on that the Kenyan, winner two years ago with a time of 2:21, was going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34,"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":[10,1],"tags":[21,19,14,20,18],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marathon","category-news","tag-21","tag-half-marathon","tag-jonathan-balzan","tag-joshua-kipchumba","tag-malta-marathon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/malta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/malta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/malta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/malta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/malta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/malta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/malta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/37"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/malta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/malta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/malta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/malta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}