The penultimate weekend in October saw Ljubljana full to bursting with the athletic spirit of the 16th Ljubljana Marathon.

On Sunday 23 October 2011, Kenyan Daniel Too set a new record time for the Ljubljana Marathon of 2:08:25 (the previous record was 2:10:12). In the women’s event, the winner was Kenyan Lydia Kurgat (2:33:01), while the spectators at the finish line were thrilled to see fifth place go to Slovene Neža Mravlje with a time of 2:42:00. This year’s fastest Slovene among the men over 42km was Mario Vračič (2:31:48).

First place over 21km in the 16th Ljubljana marathon was taken by local heroes Anton Kosmač (1:08:56) and Lidija Cerkovnik (1:20:59) in the men’s and women’s events, with decisive wins over 10km for Slovenes Mitja Krevs (31:15) and Mojca Grandovec (39:37).

This year’s Ljubljana marathon also saw record numbers of entrants, with a total of 22,082 registered from 45 countries, up 5,000 on last year’s total. The children and young people’s events (Saturday school, promotional and ‘Lumpi’ run) were no exception either, as there were more registrations in every category this year than last. Although, probably due to the cold weather, there were somewhat fewer runners than had actually registered, this year’s participation was still a record.

The results of the 16th Ljubljana Marathon, the biggest sporting-recreational event in Slovenia, can be found on the official website of the biggest sporting-recreational event in Slovenia.