This is, of course, a new Ljubljana Marathon record. The previous record was set by Ethiopian Limenih Getachew in 2015 (2:08:19). This was even the fourth fastest time among the marathon winners this year!
Lemma made his break on the 10th kilometer
“I’ve had some difficulties on the course because of the rain, however, the most important thing for me was the course record. It got a lot easier when it stopped raining,” said the winner. The 27-year-old star of the biggest recreational event in Slovenia decided to make his break on the 10th kilometer and he was running alone all the way to the finish line.

Even a bicycle can’t be that fast
The director of the marathon, Gojko Zalokar, was impressed: “This was the first time I got to drive in front of top competitors and it was an extraordinary experience for me. He started running alone from Hradeckega Street and you can’t even cycle that fast. The speed counter in the car went all the way to 21 kilometers per hour. Hats off, and in such weather. What a crazy run. We thought the group would run most of the race together all the way to the finish line, however, he decided to run alone and he achieved a fantastic outcome. Everything happened so fast that I can’t even explain it. Unbelievable performance."

According to Zalokar, this record now means that Ljubljana became one of the few “fastest” marathon courses in the world. "There is going to be a lot of runners, who came here to improve their personal record, and this will also be a course for achieving qualifying standards for the Olympic Games and World Championships," Zalokar added.

Faster winning times were this year achieved only on marathons in London, Dubai, Amsterdam and Berlin, where Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya set a world record with the time 2:01:39 on September 16th and in all history, the best times were also in Chicago and Rotterdam.

The fastest Slovenian is Modic
As the 15th, with the time 2:31:58, Matic Modic became the best ranked Slovenian: "This was a challenge for me. I decided to run for fun, and not very seriously. The time is quite good because I started training in September and I applied for 42 kilometers the very last day. The goal was 2:35 and I ran three minutes better. For something more than that, I should train a bit more seriously and maybe lose a few pounds. However, this marathon was more for my soul and joy."

University Medical Center (UKC) Ljubljana admitted six participants of the marathon, among them there were five Slovenian citizens and one Serbian. None of them had any serious complications, most of them were dehydrated, reported UKC Ljubljana.
A new course record was set in the women’s competition
Visiline Jepkesho from Kenya set the record in the women’s competition. It took her two hours, 22 minutes and 58 seconds to beat the longest Olympic discipline. With this time, she smashed the course record, which was previously set by Caroline Cheptanui Kilel from 2009 (2:25:24). " would like to thank the competitors in the second and third places. We helped each other a lot during the run, and that is why it was a lot faster than it would be. I’m not really used to running in the rain, but this was a very good experience for me since I managed to set a course record and also my personal record," said Jepkesh.