Kenya's Raymond Kimutai Bett won yesterday the 30th Athens Classic Marathon, an event that attracted almost 26,000 runners from around the world. Bett covered the 42km distance in record time -2 hours, 11 minutes and 35 seconds (2:11:35).

He was followed by fellow Kenyans Paul Kibet Kosgei in second place with 2:12:20 and Alex Sumko Kirui in third with 2:12:26. Bett had also won the 28th Athens Classic Marathon in 2010, again at a record time of 2:12:40.

Kenya dominated in the women’s race as well with Chemtai Consalater Yadaa winning with 2:40:00, followed by Ukraine’s Svitlana Stanko, in second place with 2:40:07 and Viola Chelangat Kimetto, also from Kenya, in third with 2:40:28. Greece’s Michail Parmakis with 2:21:56, finished ninth in the overall standings, followed by Christoforos Merousis with 2:22:10 (10th place), while Magda Gazea with 2:44:42 finished fifth among women racers.

Two parallel races were also held, a 10 km road race and a 5 km road race, which were won respectively by Amine Khadiri of Cyprus with 31:50 and Konstantinos Nakopoulos of Greece with 15:24.