Marathon de La Rochelle

Marathon de La Rochelle
Marathon de La Rochelle
	The course goes through La Rochelle's historic port
Date	Late November
Location	La Rochelle, France
Event type	Road
Distance	Marathon
Established	1991
Course records	Men: 2:07:13 (2011); ; Women: 2:23:38 (2021);
Official site	Marathon de La Rochelle
Participants	6,611 finishers (2021); 5,167 (2019); 6,091 (2018)

The Marathon de La Rochelle is an annual road running event which takes place in late November in La Rochelle, France. It features a full 42.195 km marathon race as well a 10 km race for amateur runners, a half marathon for wheelchair athletes, and a recreational 4 km jog around the city's harbour.

The city of La Rochelle had its first marathon race in 1981. This competition lasted until 1989 (with shorter 20 km races occurring in 1983 to 1985). Following the absence of a race in 1990, the Marathon de La Rochelle was established in its place, having its first edition on 24 November, 1991.^[1] The marathon is one of the most popular in France, having had a record high of 10,000 entrants and 8625 finishers at the 20th edition in 2010.^[2] Among French races, only the Paris Marathon has had greater participation.

Following the sudden death of Serge Vigot, the race founder and president of the organising committee, during the 2005 Marrakech Marathon, the event was officially renamed the Marathon De La Rochelle - Serge Vigot in his honour.^[3]^[2]

The race held IAAF Bronze Label Road Race status in 2011.^[4]

The course of the race is based on the streets of the central and historical port areas of the city. It has a double-looped figure-8 format and a flat race profile, which makes it easier for elite runners to record fast times.^[5] The runners in the marathon are predominantly French, but the elite level races attract East African and other European athletes. The total annual prize money available is typically around 37,000€.^[1]

The current men's and women's course records are held by Kenya's (2:07:13 hours) and of Ethiopia (2:28:24 hours), respectively. The most successful athletes historically at the race are (who won three times straight from 2000 to 2002) and (who won three times between 2005 and 2008).^[1]

Past winners[]

Key: Course record

Edition	Year	Men's winner	Time (h:m:s)	Women's winner	Time (h:m:s)
1st	1991	(FRA)	2:23:18	(FRA)	2:53:32
2nd	1992	(FRA)	2:20:31	(RUS)	2:42:54
3rd	1993	(FRA)	2:19:19	Anuța Cătună (ROM)	2:37:02
4th	1994	(FRA)	2:19:27	(RUS)	2:44:52
5th	1995	(RUS)	2:17:11	(FRA)	2:40:44
6th	1996	(UKR)	2:16:14	Irina Permitina (RUS)	2:38:39
7th	1997	(UKR)	2:17:10	(RUS)	2:42:22
8th	1998	(UKR)	2:15:43	(RUS)	2:38:34
9th	1999	(UKR)	2:15:45	(FRA)	2:41:54
10th	2000	(KEN)	2:18:35	(RUS)	2:40:03
11th	2001	(KEN)	2:16:19	Valentina Enachi (MDA)	2:35:42
12th	2002	(KEN)	2:17:11	Valentina Enachi (MDA)	2:38:55
13th	2003	(KEN)	2:11:34	Helena Javornik (SLO)	2:31:54
14th	2004	(KEN)	2:16:08	Halina Karnatsevich (BLR)	2:39:24
15th	2005	(KEN)	2:12:17	(KEN)	2:34:50
16th	2006	(KEN)	2:14:01	(KEN)	2:37:58
17th	2007	(KEN)	2:14:17	(KEN)	2:37:12
18th	2008	(ETH)	2:14:21	(KEN)	2:34:52
19th	2009	Oleksandr Sitkovskyy (UKR)	2:10:27	(ETH)	2:33:28
20th	2010	(ETH)	2:09:44	(ETH)	2:28:24
21st	2011	(KEN)	2:07:13	(ETH)	2:36:04
22nd	2012	(KEN)	2:09:12	(ETH)	2:32:59
23rd	2013	(KEN)	2:12:28	(ETH)	2:38:00
24th	2014	(ETH)	2:12:16	Peninah Arusei (KEN)	2:33:10
25th	2015	(KEN)	2:09:25	(ETH)	2:32:11
26th	2016	(KEN)	2:10:46	(KEN)	2:30:51
27th	2017	(ETH)	2:11:07	Susan Kipsang (KEN)	2:30:57
28th	2018	(KEN)	2:13:23	(KEN)	2:40:08
29th	2019	(KEN)	2:08:22	(KEN)	2:29:51
30th	2021	Edwin Soi (KEN)	2:09:16	(KEN)	2:23:38