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Kenya’s Benard Cheruiyot Sang and Diana Chemtai Kipyogei won in the men’s and women’s categories respectively at Sunday’s Istanbul Marathon.
The world’s only intercontinental marathon, in addition to being in the World Athletics Gold category, the 40-kilometer (24.85-mile) event was run without spectators this year to protect against the transmission of COVID-19.
The marathon reversed its course for the first time this year. Instead of starting from the Asian side of the city, the athletes started from the European side. Another change to the race this year was crossing the Bridge of Martyrs on July 15 over the Bosphorus twice this year.
The marathon started in Yenikapı, a designated place for large-scale demonstrations, on the European side of the city, to give runners more space amid the pandemic. The athletes then crossed a route on horseback between the ancient city walls before reaching the iconic Galata Bridge. They then headed for Beşiktaş and climbed Barbaros Boulevard, a long uphill stretch necessary to reach the bridge. After a U-turn at Altunizade on the Asian side, they returned to Europe to conclude the race.
The pandemic forced organizers to scrap the 15-kilometer race and a “public” 8-kilometer race. Instead, the participants had the opportunity to “Run alone, with us” in which they could participate in virtual races of 5, 10 or 15 kilometers.
There was also a limited number of participants per pandemic, with only 4,000 people running the race compared to around 37,000 last year.
The athletes were asked to maintain a distance of 1.5 meters between them at the starting line and took off at five-second intervals in different groups to avoid crowding. They were only allowed to remove their masks after the marathon started.
