# 2010 European Athletics Championships – Men's marathon

The men's marathon at the 2010 European Athletics Championships was held on the streets of Barcelona on 1 August.

## Background

A total of 70 runners were declared for the race. Of those, 20 were identified as contenders for medal positions, with Switzerland's Viktor Röthlin and Spain's José Ríos among the favourites. Also a contender was defending champion Italian Stefano Baldini, with the race billed as his return to racing after two years, since finishing 12th in the Olympic marathon. José Manuel Martínez, another Spaniard, was the leading European in the previous year's World Championships marathon where he finished eighth. Four of the Spanish runners warned before the race that heat and humidity would be the main handicaps to the competitors and force a slow and tactical race. The race would be run over four relatively flat laps of 10 km around the city of Barcelona.

## Race details

The race started at 10:05 CEST with a field of 64 taking to the start line. It was run in hot conditions with the temperature at the start of the race 25 °C (77 °F) and the humidity rated at 74 per cent. The early pace was set by Russian Yuriy Abramov, winner of the 2010 Moscow Marathon. However, when he fell back, Röthlin was among the leading pack. The Swiss runner set a pace that the rest of the field could not compete with and he ran the final quarter of the race by himself to win by two minutes 19 seconds on Swiss National Day. Second place was home runner Martínez, who said he could not compete with Röthlin's pace so instead decided to hold a steady rhythm and not get involved in any counter-attacks. Bronze medal winner was Russian Dmitriy Safronov. Röthlin's victory was only the fourth gold for Switzerland at the European championships and their first since shot putter Werner Günthör won in the 1986 championships. Baldini's attempt to defend his title ended when he pulled out half-way through the race. Only 45 of the athletes finished the race.
The race also counted for the European Cup team result, with the teams decided on the fastest sum time of their first three athletes. Hosts Spain won the gold, ahead of Russia and Italy.

## Reaction

Röthlin said after the race: "It's fantastic to do this on Swiss National Day. After everything that's happened over the past two years, this is incredible. I wouldn't have come had I not been in with a medal chance." He also made light of the warm weather, saying it was cool compared to the 2007 World Championships marathon in Osaka, Japan. Silver medalist Martínez said: "I just tried ... not [to] get involved with any counter-attacks as I've tried in the past and I'm very satisfied with my silver."

## Medalists

| Gold | Viktor Röthlin Switzerland (SUI) |
| Silver | José Manuel Martínez Spain (ESP) |
| Bronze | Dmitriy Safronov Russia (RUS) |

## Records

Standing records prior to the 2010 European Athletics Championships :
| World record | Haile Gebrselassie (ETH) | 2:03:59 | Berlin, Germany | 28 September 2008 |
| European record | Benoît Zwierzchiewski (FRA) | 2:06.36 | Paris, France | 6 April 2003 |
| Championship record | Martín Fiz (ESP) | 2:10:31 | Helsinki, Finland | 14 August 1994 |
| World Leading | Patrick Makau Musyoki (KEN) | 2:04:48 | Rotterdam, Netherlands | 11 April 2010 |
| European Leading | Iaroslav Musinschi (MDA) | 2:08:32 | Düsseldorf, Germany | 2 May 2010 |

## Schedule

| Date | Time | Round |
| 1 August 2010 | 10:05 | Final |

## Results
### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Nationality | Time |
| | Viktor Röthlin | Switzerland (SUI) | 2:15:31 |
| | José Manuel Martínez | Spain (ESP) | 2:17:50 |
| | Dmitriy Safronov | Russia (RUS) | 2:18:16 |
| 4 | Ruggero Pertile | Italy (ITA) | 2:19:33 |
| 5 | Pablo Villalobos | Spain (ESP) | 2:19:56 |
| 6 | Rafael Iglesias | Spain (ESP) | 2:20:14 |
| 7 | Migidio Bourifa | Italy (ITA) | 2:20:35 |
| 8 | Lee Merrien | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 2:20:42 |
| 9 | Aleksey Sokolov | Russia (RUS) | 2:20:49 |
| 10 | Luís Feiteira | Portugal (POR) | 2:21:28 |
| 11 | Ottaviano Andriani | Italy (ITA) | 2:21:32 |
| 12 | Mariusz Giżyński | Poland (POL) | 2:21:54 |
| 13 | Rens Dekkers | Netherlands (NED) | 2:22:03 |
| 14 | Hugo van den Broek | Netherlands (NED) | 2:22:06 |
| 15 | Oleg Kulkov | Russia (RUS) | 2:22:24 |
| 16 | Dave Webb | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 2:23:04 |
| 17 | Koen Raymaekers | Netherlands (NED) | 2:23:24 |
| 18 | Günther Weidlinger | Austria (AUT) | 2:23:37 |
| 19 | Dan Robinson | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 2:24:06 |
| 20 | Alberto Chaíça | Portugal (POR) | 2:24:14 |
| 21 | Erik Petersson | Sweden (SWE) | 2:24:29 |
| 22 | Wodage Zwadya | Israel (ISR) | 2:24:39 |
| 23 | Ayele Setegne | Israel (ISR) | 2:26:26 |
| 24 | Ben Moreau | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 2:27:08 |
| 25 | Oleksiy Rybalchenko | Ukraine (UKR) | 2:27:34 |
| 26 | Patrick Stitzinger | Netherlands (NED) | 2:28:02 |
| 27 | Vasyl Matviychuk | Ukraine (UKR) | 2:28:26 |
| 28 | Martin Williams | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 2:28:30 |
| 29 | Jesper Faurschou | Denmark (DEN) | 2:28:34 |
| 30 | Dastaho Svnech | Israel (ISR) | 2:28:36 |
| 31 | Daniele Caimmi | Italy (ITA) | 2:29:18 |
| 32 | Anton Kosmac | Slovenia (SLO) | 2:29:56 |
| 33 | Toni Bernadó | Andorra (AND) | 2:30:52 |
| 34 | Brihun Weve | Israel (ISR) | 2:31:47 |
| 35 | Primoz Kobe | Slovenia (SLO) | 2:31:47 |
| 36 | Kristoffer Österlund | Sweden (SWE) | 2:32:16 |
| 37 | Ronald Schröer | Netherlands (NED) | 2:33:18 |
| 38 | Zohar Zemiro | Israel (ISR) | 2:36:58 |
| 39 | Marcel Tschopp | Liechtenstein (LIE) | 2:37:14 |
| 40 | Robert Kotnik | Slovenia (SLO) | 2:40:57 |
| 41 | Javier Díaz | Spain (ESP) | 2:42:41 |
| 42 | José Moreira | Portugal (POR) | 2:43:56 |
| 43 | Ivan Ramirez | Andorra (AND) | 2:51:42 |
| 44 | Christian Pflügl | Austria (AUT) | 2:53:15 |
| 45 | Alan Manchado | Andorra (AND) | 3:12:40 |
| | Tobias Sauter | Germany (GER) | DNF |
| | Adam Draczyński | Poland (POL) | DNF |
| | Denis Curzi | Italy (ITA) | DNF |
| | Ignacio Cáceres | Spain (ESP) | DNF |
| | Fernando Silva | Portugal (POR) | DNF |
| | Yuriy Abramov | Russia (RUS) | DNF |
| | Oleksandr Sitkobskyy | Ukraine (UKR) | DNF |
| | Henryk Szost | Poland (POL) | DNF |
| | Tilahun Aliyev | Azerbaijan (AZE) | DNF |
| | José Ríos | Spain (ESP) | DNF |
| | Adil Bouafif | Sweden (SWE) | DNF |
| | Martin Beckmann | Germany (GER) | DNF |
| | Øystein Sylta | Norway (NOR) | DNF |
| | Andi Jones | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | DNF |
| | Hermano Ferreira | Portugal (POR) | DNF |
| | James Theuri | France (FRA) | DNF |
| | Stefano Baldini | Italy (ITA) | DNF |
| | Florian Prüller | Austria (AUT) | DNF |
| | Jordi Royo Lozano | Andorra (AND) | DNF |