Marathon

In an all-time record of participants from 105 countries, the 34th Athens Marathon began this morning, with 50,000 registered athletes who will race in different course lengths throughout the day.

Nearly 250 marathon and long distance runners will take part in the 34th Athens Authentic Marathon, scheduled to take place on Sunday, November 13.

Inspired by the true story of veteran Marathon champion Maria Polyzou, the fairy tale "A Giant Called M.P." by Magda Costopoulou-Beriou is out in both Greek and English editions, coinciding with the Athens Marathon-The Authentic that takes place this Sunday.

More than 350 yachtsmen, aged 7 to 77, took part in Greece's first ever Sailing Marathon on Saturday, in the Saronic Gulf. The organizers hope to make the event a fixture on the international sports calendar. [Nikos Alevromytis]

BELGRADE - The Tourist Organization of Belgrade (TOB) and the Belgrade Marathon were presented at the Abbott Health & Fitness Expo in Chicago Monday.

The TOB and the Belgrade Marathon presented Belgrade's tourist attractions and the 30th anniversary edition of the marathon to over 140,000 participants from 100 countries, a TOB statement said.

Polish runner Andrzej Radzikowski won the 245.3km historic Spartathlon race on Saturday for the first time, clocking 23 hours, 1 minute and 13 seconds.

Radzikowski, 35, was 18th last year and two years ago finished third.

Finishing second was Italy's 39-year-old Marco Bonfiglio in 23:35.14 while 42-year-old Radek Brunner of the Czech Republic was third in 24:06.39.

Traffic police are to divert motorists from several central roads in Athens on Saturday afternoon as thousands of runners join the Acropolis Night Run, a 5-kilometer mini-marathon, which starts outside the Acropolis Museum at 6.30 p.m.

The run will cover much of the capital's historic district and end where it started.

Spartathlon 2016, this unique annual ultra-marathon race of 246 kilometers from Athens to Sparta draped in history, is starting on Friday morning with the winner set to cross the finish line early on Saturday.

He couldn't believe his eyes. He looked at the list again to make sure he wasn't mistaken. But there it was, his name among the runners who qualified for the marathon at the Rio Olympics this summer.

Leila, Liina, and Lily Luik are not expected to medal when they compete at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. But the three Estonian marathon runners will make history as the first set of triplets to compete together.