In the hilliest and holiest city of Jerusalem, a record-breaking number of 40,000 runners took to the streets to run the 9th annual Jerusalem Marathon. On the March 15th Friday morning, these thousands, which included about 4,600 athletes who flew in from 80 countries specifically for the event, chose from six differing routes to take. The routes included a full marathon, a family race, and a community race of 800 meters. Over 6,000 participants ran for a cause, such as Team Shalva, Team One Family Fund and Camp Kobi.
Two Kenyan runners won first place, and were followed up by Kenyan runners who took second and third place in both women’s and men’s races. The first place went to Ronald Kimeli, 33, who won the men’s race with a time of 2:18:47, and Kimaio Nancy Chepngetich, 35, who won the women’s race with a time of 2:44:50.
About 20 million NIS was made in tourism for businesses in the area. Moshe Leon, Jerusalem’s newly elected mayor greeted runners at the finish line of the race, and voiced that he planned to run next year.
