Burundian Nshimirimana Tops Competition in Ljubljana Marathon
Joachim Nshimirimana of Burundi is the winner of the men's competition at the 2006 Ljubljana Marathon. The women's race was won by Inga Juodeskiene of Lithuania.
There was a stark contrast between the men's and women's competitions on Sunday, as the men managed a fairly quick tempo throughout, whereas the women struggled.
Nshimirimana clocked a time of 2:14.14 to finish ahead of Benjamin Kiptarus of Kenya (2:14.29) and Aman Awad Amajid of Qatar (2:15.08).
"Since I ran here before, I knew that the leading group would start too quickly. I chose a somewhat slower rhythm. Until the 35th kilometre I was convinced I could beat the track record, but the wind was too strong in the last part of the course," said Nshimirimana.
The winning time was just over half a minute slower than the record for the Ljubljana Marathon held by Nshimirimana since 2004.
Meanwhile, Juodeskiene won in a time of 3:01.55, in one of the slowest women's races in Ljubljana ever. She beat her nearest competitor, Danielle Krijgsman of the Netherlands, by nearly five minutes.
The fastest Slovenian in the men's marathon was Bostjan Hrovat, who finished 29th with a time of 2:37.49. Jadranka Leskovsek was the best Slovenian in the women's section, coming in 6th with a time of 3:19.51.
A total of nearly 10,000 runners took part in the marathon, half-marathon and fun runs that were held on Saturday and Sunday in Ljubljana.
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