Other events in Baltic States

At the 25th annual Lattelecom Riga Marathon on May 17th, Haile Bekuma and Bejene Soboka, both from Ethiopia, crossed first and second in the men's 42.19km marathon race. Bekuma ran the distance in 2 hours, 12 minutes and 28 seconds, a track record. Soboka finished 23 seconds behind, with Kenya's Duncan Koech on his heels in third place, informs LETA.

Latvia's top long distance runner – Valerijs Zolnerovics, had a good race, crossing the line in sixth place (2 hours, 14 minutes and 39 seconds), just six ticks away from breaking the Latvian record.

An Ethiopian competitor was first for the women as well – Esethu Messerata, breaking the tape at 2:37:01, five seconds ahead of her fellow countrywoman Vorknecia Biru.

In the 21.09km half-marathon, the victors were from Latvia – Janis Girgensons and Jelena Prokopchuka.