The route taken by the athletes is an ancient holy trail followed by pilgrims, who travelled from Dion to the summits of Mount Olympus, in homage to Zeus.

Starting in Dion, this year’s 635 athletes followed an uphill route for 21 kilometres, to reach an altitude of 2600 metres in the Muses Plateau. They then crossed “Zonaria”, below the Throne of Zeus, and started their descent via “Zolotas” refuge, “Prionia” and Enipeas Gorge, before completing their exciting race in Litochoro town.

This year's winner was Zaid Aid Malek from Spain, with a time of 4:31:47!  He was followed, just 1 minute and 13 seconds later, by Kiril Nikolov from Bulgaria, closely followed by Pere Aurell, also from Spain, who completed the race in 4:33:00.

In the women’s race, the winner was Elisa Desco from Italy, with a time of 5:14:16, followed by Ragna Debats from the Netherlands and Anne-Lise Rousset Seguret from France.

Sponsors
The race’s major sponsors include: Ethniki Pangaia, Teleperformance, Salomon, Olympus Marathon’s regular valued supporter; Suunto, Runner Store, Polo, Vikos natural mineral water, Aegean Airlines, Avis, Stoiximan, Ravago Hellas, Novo Νordisk, Squeezy Sports Nutrition, Ravatherm Hellas and Melissa. Further information: www.olympus-marathon.com

Text Credits: Marina Veroni & Sofia Vlavianou
Photo Credits: GOexperience