Ethiopian athletes Gelete Burka (women’s race) and Abrha Milaw (men’s race) won the 43rd edition of the Paris Marathon on Sunday, leading a record 60,000 participants to the finish line of a monument-steeped course through the French capital.
Wheelchair athletes and runners from around the world set off from the Champs-Élyséesafter 8am on a cold (2°C) and cloudless Sunday morning in Paris. This year’s course ran east through the French capital to the Bois de Vincennes, around that vast forested park, and then west again through the heart of the city, along the Seine on the Right Bank, past the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, and through the Bois de Boulogne. Two landmarks, the Opéra Garnier and the Place Vendôme, were added to the 2019 route.
A full 250,000 spectators were expected to line the marathon’s route and 3,000 volunteers were involved. Women made up a record 27 percent of those signed up for the 2019 race.
Among the elite women running, one athlete won a late battle to take part. France’s Clémence Calvin, the European marathon silver medallist, was provisionally suspended by the French anti-doping agency (AFLD) on Wednesday for allegedly obstructing a doping test in Morocco last month. The 28-year-old has denied the allegations. France’s top administrative court, the Council of State, issued an emergency ruling late on Friday that lifted her provisional ban.
Calvin crossed the finish line in fourth place on Sunday with a time of 2:23:41 to set a new French record for the distance, pending official validation.
