Florence Marathon

Florence Marathon
Florence's architecture features prominently – Piazza Santa Croce is the finishing point
Date	Late November
Location	Florence, Italy
Event type	Road
Distance	Marathon
Primary sponsor	Asics
Established	1984 (40 years ago) (1984)
Course records	Men: 2:08:41 (2006) James Kutto Women: 2:24:17 (2018) Lonah Salpeter
Official site	Florence Marathon
Participants	3,751 finishers (2021) 5,792 (2019) 7,606 (2018)

The Florence Marathon (Italian: Maratona di Firenze) is an annual full-length marathon race held in late November in Florence, Italy, since 1984.

Established in 1984, the international competition has significantly grown in size since its inaugural edition of 462 runners^[1] – a total of 10,211 runners started the 2010 edition, making it the second largest Italian marathon after the Rome City Marathon.^[2]

Orlando Pizzolato, a two-time New York Marathon winner, was present to inaugurate the race in 1984.^[3] The competition's first course was about a kilometre short of the true marathon distance, and it was increased for all subsequent editions.^[4]

Italians form the bulk of the runners, while France, Germany and the United Kingdom are usually the next most represented nationalities in the field.^[5] From 2005 to 2009, the competition was annually broadcast live for three hours on the state-owned Rai Tre channel.^[3] The race is among Italy's most prominent – it was selected to be the national championship marathon race for the first time in 2003.^[4]

The 2020 edition of the race was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, with all registrants given the option of registering for 2021, 2022, or 2023 for free.^[6][7]

The course used in the inaugural race was about 965 m (3,166 ft) short.^[4]

From 2001 through 2009, the course began at Piazzale Michelangelo and had a zigzagging path through the centre.^[8][3] The bends and cobblestone roads made for a particularly difficult marathon and this led to the change in 2011 for an easier, faster race.^[9][10]

An AIMS-certified course,^[11] it was ineligible for world records due to an overall net drop of 75 m from 2001 to 2009, but the current course is now eligible.^[4]

The course used in 2010 and 2011 had a drop of 40 m (130 ft), which meant that it was eligible for records as it was within the drop limit of 1 m/km (5.3 ft/mi).^[4]

The course, which was first used in 2012, starts at the Lungarno Pecori Giraldi and finishes in Piazza Santa Croce. It passes through much of Florence's historical town centre, with architecture dating from the 13th century, including: Piazza della Signoria, Ponte Vecchio, and the Basilica of Santa Croce.

The current course record holders are James Kutto, who set the men's record of 2:08:41 in 2006, and Lonah Chemtai Salpeter who set the female course record of 2:24:17 in 2018.^[12]

Key:

   Course record (in bold)

   Country's championship race

   Short course

Edition	Year	Men's winner	Time[a]	Women's winner	Time[a]	Rf.
I	1984	Andrew Robertson (GBR)	2:15:23	Gillian Burley (GBR)	2:32:53
II	1985	Fausto Molinari (ITA)	2:17:44	Celia Duncan (GBR)	2:44:32
III	1986	Andrew Girling (GBR)	2:15:37	Graziella Striuli (ITA)	2:39:35
IV	1987	Trevor Fieldsend (GBR)	2:16:33	Carolyn Naisby (GBR)	2:33:23
V	1988	Edgardo Farinelli (ITA)	2:15:51	Manola Casalini (ITA)	2:43:14
VI	1989	Alberto Lucherini (ITA)	2:16:48	Christine Van Put (BEL)	2:39:45
VII	1990	Roman Kejžar (YUG)	2:18:57	Valentina Bottarelli (ITA)	2:44:23
VIII	1991	Alberto Lucherini (ITA)	2:16:33	Sheila Catford (GBR)	2:35:37
IX	1992	Ivo Rodrigues (BRA)	2:19:12	Ingrid Ekroll (NOR)	2:50:34
X	1993	Ivano Marcon (ITA)	2:16:39	Éva Petrik (HUN)	2:42:24
XI	1994	Clair Wathier (BRA)	2:14:03	Dana Hajná (CZE)	2:41:34
XII	1995	Bernard Boiyo (KEN)	2:15:36	Svetlana Netchaeva (RUS)	2:40:08
XIII	1996	Sammy Korir (KEN)	2:15:04	Bettina Sabatini (ITA)	2:33:51
XIV	1997	Ottaviano Andriani (ITA)	2:14:27	Matilde Ravizza (ITA)	2:47:00
XV	1998	Azzedine Sakhri (ALG)	2:16:39	Ida Kovács (HUN)	2:44:16
XVI	1999	Michele Gamba (ITA)	2:11:51	Michaela McCallum (GBR)	2:38:28
XVII	2000	Angelo Carosi (ITA)	2:14:11	Tiziana Alagia (ITA)	2:32:18
XVIII	2001	Daniel Kirwa (KEN)	2:10:38	Florinda Andreucci (ITA)	2:32:26
XIX	2002	Michael Kapkiai (KEN)	2:11:15	Helena Javornik (SLO)	2:28:15
XX	2003	Angelo Carosi (ITA)	2:15:54	Anna Incerti (ITA)	2:34:40
XXI	2004	Benjamin Kiprotich (KEN)	2:11:34	Florence Barsosio (KEN)	2:29:11
XXII	2005	Samson Kosgei (KEN)	2:11:27	Alice Chelangat (KEN)	2:30:46
XXIII	2006	James Kutto (KEN)	2:08:41	Vincenza Sicari (ITA)	2:34:52
XXIV	2007	Paul Ngeny (KEN)	2:12:50	Vincenza Sicari (ITA)	2:33:14
XXV	2008	Jackson Kiprono (KEN)	2:12:37	Giovanna Volpato (ITA)	2:34:13
XXVI	2009	Ben Chebet (KEN)	2:11:21	Eva-Maria Gradwohl (AUT)	2:35:41
XXVII	2010	Tadese Tolesa (ETH)	2:12:41	Firehiwot Dado (ETH)	2:28:58
XXVIII	2011	Birhanu Bekele (ETH)	2:09:52	Asha Gigi (ETH)	2:31:36
XXIX	2012	Endeshaw Negesse (ETH)	2:09:59	Shuru Diriba (ETH)	2:30:08
XXX	2013	Oleksandr Sitkovskyy (UKR)	2:09:14	Abeba Teklu (ETH)	2:30:37
XXXI	2014	Asbel Kipsang (KEN)	2:09:55	Bizuayehu Ehite (ETH)	2:31:28
XXXII	2015	Tujuba Megersa (ETH)	2:09:55	Priscah Cherono (KEN)	2:31:34
XXXIII	2016	Yadete Teshome (ETH)	2:11:57	Winnie Jepkorir (KEN)	2:28:46
XXXIV	2017	Zelalem Bacha (BHR)	2:14:41	Dire Tune (ETH)	2:28:55
XXXV	2018	Abdi Ali Gelelchu (BHR)	2:11:32	Lonah Salpeter (ISR)	2:24:17	[13][14]
XXXVI	2019	Sahlessilae Bekele (ETH)	2:10:14	Jess Piasecki (GBR)	2:25:29	[15][16]
—	2020	cancelled due to coronavirus pandemic				[6]
XXXVII	2021	CyBrian Kotut (KEN)	2:08:59	Tsehay Maru (ETH)	2:27:17

Country	Men's race	Women's race	Total
Italy	9	11	20
Kenya	12	4	16
Ethiopia	6	7	13
England	2	4	6
Brazil	2	0	2
Hungary	0	2	2
Scotland	1	1	2
Slovenia	1	1	2
Algeria	1	0	1
Austria	1	0	1
Bahrain	2	0	2
Belgium	0	1	1
Czech Republic	0	1	1
United Kingdom	0	1	1
Israel	0	1	1
Norway	0	1	1
Russia	0	1	1
Ukraine	1	0	1

• All statistics taken from the Association of Road Racing Statisticians.^[4]

• Official website

43°46′08″N 11°15′40″E / 43.76889°N 11.26111°E / 43.76889; 11.26111