Paris and Brighton Marathon recap: Mark Korir celebrates greatest win of career

Paris

Mark Korir of Kenya won the Paris Marathon today running a 2:05:49. The 30-year-old athlete specializes in shorter races and today’s victory in Paris is being called the greatest of his running career so far. He says today’s win was unexpected.

“I didn’t expect to win at all, and I did not expect such a great time. I knew there were a lot of strong guys in the line-up who had run below 2:07, so the victory today was quite a surprise for me,” he told the Associated Press.

Great news also came for the top finishing woman. Ethiopian runner Meseret Mengistu ran 2:23:26. That’s six minutes off of her PB.

Last year’s Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon champion, Laban Korir also raced. He finished in sixth place. Racing conditions in the French capital were described as basically perfect today.

Brighton

After Friday saw alarmingly high levels of pollution across six districts in England, runners racing the Brighton Marathon were lucky to be competing in fresher conditions today. Warnings were sent out in parts of eastern and southeastern England on Friday when air pollution reached level nine. Luckily, that cleared up on time for the marathon which had over 15,000 registered.

First to cross the line was Duncan Maiyo who ran 2:10:15. The top female finisher was Pennina Wanjiru who clocked 2:34:25.

This year, organizers provided more water at aid stations. Water was available at every mile. Two years ago, a runner died at the event due to dehydration.

Many seek out the Brighton Marathon because of its reputation for being a flat and fast course.