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BELGRADE MARATHON BACK FOR 2005
Throughout the 1990s, just about the only good news to come out of war-torn
Yugoslavia was the Belgrade Marathon. Against all the odds - sanctions,
closure of the airport, strict visa controls, raging inflation and general
mayhem - the organisers kept both the marathon and the elite Belgrade Race
Through History on the road.
Then when everything seemed ripe to develop the event at the turn of the
century, a dispute between the organisers and the city council threw the
race off course for three years. But, after protracted negotiations, and
the backing of the IAAF and IAMS, the original organisers are back in thew
driving seat, and so eager to prove their worth that they have managed to
get the marathon back on the road inside just two months. And also to get
an impressive array of sponsors to back them.
The race is now entitled the Belgrade Delta Sports Marathon, and the team
led by Dejan Nikolic is working flat-out to make this 18th edition of the
event a success. Nikolic's big coup was to get as president of the new
company Alexandr "Sasha" Djordjevic, probably the biggest sports star in
Serbia, captain of a national basketball team which won Olympic, world and
European titles.
"It was a combination of having the IAAF and AIMS behind us, then someone
like Sasha backing us that won the day," says Nikolic. "We are at the
beginning of a new era. I'm not saying that everything will be perfect this
time round, given the short lead-in, but we'll be aiming to do better with
October's Race Through History. Nevertheless, it would be nice to get a new
men's course record (currently 2 hr 12min 27sec)."
Favourite to do that is Isaac Kiprono of Kenya, whose recent performancewas
second in Padova, Italy last year, but whose fastest time came in Rotterdam
2001, when he ran 2.09.59. Isaac is the younger brother of Josephat Kiprono
(2.06.50 in Berlin), and Luke Kibet (2.10.00). It's not the Kenyan way to
make predictions, but Kiprono ventured, "If the temperature and pacing is
good, I would hope to run fast." Among the other Kenyans present, the
consensus is that Onesmus Kilonzo, second in Beijing 2002 is the man in
form.
The winner will receive the Fred Lebow Trophy, named after the founder of
the New York Marathon, who was born in nearby Transylvania, and who was a
big supporter of Belgrade's development. There is a parallel trophy for
local runners, named after Franjo Mihalic, Olympic marathon silver
medallist in 1956, and the only Serbian winner of the International Cross
Country the following year. Mihalic is 85, and competed in the 10k fun-run
until his late seventies.
Marathon week began last Saturday with the Children's Race, 200 metres
around the Elephant Compound at Belgrade Zoo. Eighteen thousand five and
six year olds from every kindergarten in the city compete in knock-out
tournaments in preceding weeks, and 150 went into the grand final, with
Nikola Kaip sprinting out the winner.
Belgrade has a long tradition of inviting former athletics stars - not
necessarily marathoners - as guests. And luminaries from Mihalic's great
rival Emil Zatopek to Bob Beamon and Sergey Bubka have enjoyed Balkan
hospitality. This year's eagerly anticipated arrival is sprinter Merlene
Ottey, now living in and competing for neighbouring Slovenia. Unlike her
erstwhile rival, Florence Griffith-Joyner, who once rashly predicted that
she would run a marathon, Ottey resolutely says, "No way, it's 42
kilometres too far." Fortunately, there will be thousands in Belgrade this
weekend who will demonstrate otherwise.
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