The 5th International Marathon of Rhodes broke all records

With great success was completed the 5th International Marathon of Rhodes as it will go down in history as the race of records, both in terms of entries and times achieved.

More than 2700 runners took part for the first time in the five-year history of the event, while a new record was achieved in the distances of the Marathon and Half Marathon for men and the Half Marathon for women.

Winner in Marathon was George Minos Minos who ran 2:36:55, running for the first time in his career 42.195 meters and as it was natural he received the enthusiastic applause of all the spectators. He was followed by Christos Votsos with 2:43:35 and Yannis Alexandropoulos with 2:50:06. It is worth noting that the Turkish Buzgan took fourth place and the Spanish Iturieta took fifth.

George Minos Minos said of his first: "I am very happy to win because I managed to beat myself in my first marathon. I encountered difficulties that I tried to overcome, mainly because of the heat, but it was a perfect event."

The women's winner was Stella Markakou with 3:34:11, second was Maria Polyzou with 3:32:57 who ran in Rhodes to promote the work of "Orama Elpidas" for volunteer bone marrow donors, while Dimitra Karousi took third place on the podium with 4:01:49.

At Half Marathon, also with a new record for the Rhodes Marathon, the winner was the Pole Mateusz Manziar with 1:06:16, second was the Turkish Yuksel Ozkan with 1:17:35 and third was Giorgos Menis with 1:18:30. Manziar said: "It was the second time in my life that I ran a half marathon, I expected a better time, but the heat made us all suffer. However, I want to emphasize that we had it all here in Rhodes, we felt like real athletes and I want to take this opportunity to thank my family for supporting me all this time."

In the women's race, the ambassador of the race, Rania Reboulis, was the first to cut the thread with 1:18:31. Katerina Asimakopoulou with 1:24:04 and Penelope Drakopoulou with 1:32:24 were also on the podium. "It's an honour to run in Rhodes and now this becomes bigger as I'm the ambassador of the race and I want to invite more of my teammates to come next year. It was a very useful race I overcame any problems that plagued me and came out, I learned useful lessons for my marathon preparation. I feel very good and I'm on the upswing, which was evident today," said Rania Reboulis after her finish.

In the men's 10 km race, Kostas Drossos won with 36.03 and in the women's race Natalia Charalambous Levasova won with 44.37. In the 5 km also Kostas Drossos won with 17.58 and in the women's race Magdalene Aroniada won with 22.56.

His satisfaction for the success of the event was noted the Regional Governor of South Aegean George Hatzimarkos: "Everything was excellent today and I am very happy. As a Region we invested in sport and put Rhodes in the world sporting grace, with many great sporting events, always having the Marathon at the centre."

The President of the Organizing Committee and Vice-Regional Governor of Sports, Tourism and Culture Marietta Papavassiliou he stressed: "I would like to thank all those involved in the event who worked hard this year, as they have done for the last five years, and we have achieved this year's result. Everything went extremely well and I think that year after year the Rhodes Marathon grows and offers a lot to the Island and the Dodecanese. Since 2014 we have targeted the sporting events, we have become a leading player and now Rhodes is at the heart of sports tourism."

Executives of the Ministry of Tourism and the Greek National Tourism Organization participated in the 5th International Marathon along with executives of the Regional Authority and representatives of local institutions, accompanying the "Run for Tourism" team.
It is the first time in history that central administration officials are actively involved in a joint action. More generally, it is the first time that the Ministry of Tourism has such a close relationship with Rhodes, supporting actions and initiatives that take place on the island.

The "Run for Tourism" is another initiative of the South Aegean Region, which is part of its targeted actions for the connection of major sporting events with tourism and the extension, by extension, of the tourist season and in this way continued the effort launched by the Athens Authentic Marathon by the Ministry of Tourism.

Also, through the Marathon, Rhodes was one of the 12 cities in Greece that organized events in the framework of the International Volunteer Blood Donor Day and in the children's 1,000 meters race there was a symbolic relay race with the participation of Olympic champion Nikis Xanthou, Paralympian Thanasis Barakos and a Volunteer Blood Donor. At the finish line, members of the local club "Rodavgi" took a sample from those interested in becoming volunteer bone marrow donors at the "Orama Elpidas" club.

Gold sponsor of the Rhodes Marathon is this year again Adidas through its local store Adidas Rhodes and nominal sponsor of the race of 5 km. The Hotels collection. Also, the Aegean Airlines is the official aviation sponsor of the Rhodes Marathon while the Blue Star Ferries which is an official sponsor of ferry services, provides 50% discount for passengers and 30% discount for vehicles who will travel to Rhodes from Piraeus, Kos, Kalymnos, Leros and Syros.

Also on the website rhodesmarathon.gr you can find great offers and great discounts for accommodation in Rhodes, through the Marathon's partner hotels, such as Sheraton Rhodes Resortthat supports the International Marathon as the main hospitality sponsor. Silver sponsor is TEN-T and sponsored by the hotels Atrium. Communication Sponsor of the 5th International Marathon of Rhodes is Nova.

Ο ΜRhodes Marathon organized by the Region of South Aegean, the E.A.S. S.E.G.A.S. Dodecanese, Him IOPAR of the Municipality of Rhodes and with the support of the Rhodes Hotel Association. It is held under the auspices ofGreek Tourism Organisation and has been included in the official calendar of the AIMS.