The Mérida Marathon took place on Sunday, January 5, 2025.
MÉRIDA, Yucatán.— The great show of the Mérida Marathon had no surprises in its 2025 edition. The Kenyans overwhelmed everyone in the men’s category, and, like last year, the Mexican flag was again at the top among the women.
Robert Gaitho, with a time of 2.17.41 hours, made the pieces move among the Kenyan runners, leading a 1-2-3, while Isabel Oropeza Vázquez, with 2.46.51 hours, crossed the finish line as two-time champion of the first long-distance event of the 2025 season.
The traditional athletic event served to open the celebrations for the 486th anniversary of the founding of Mérida, in a special setting such as Paseo de Montejo.
More than four thousand people registered, and many others did not start on a cold Sunday morning. The darkness of the early morning was illuminated in Montejo with fireworks that announced the start of the first distances, marathon, and half marathon, on the way to a route with essential points of Mérida, on a route certified by the Mexican Federation of Athletics Associations.
With temperatures of 18 degrees, but with high levels of humidity, beating records was not an easy task, but Gaitho did it and surpassed the record of 2 hours, 19 minutes, and 19 seconds left in 2024 by his fellow citizen Gesabwa Rodgers Ondati, this time relegated to fifth place.
Mérida was still sleeping and the runners were already competing. At 5 in the morning, the 500 competitors left in the star event, and then, 1,400 in the 21-kilometer distance, with 1,550 in the 10-kilometer and 550 in the family walk.
The Montejo area was a maelstrom. The start allowed us to see authentic human rivers between cheers flashlights and cell phones. Mayor Cecilia Patrón Laviada, before joining the recreational walk, gave the starting whistle, accompanied by Jesús Pérez Ballote, director of Human Welfare, was present; Hirvan Martínez Zapata, from the Citizen Committee of the Marathon; Ricardo Compeán Ortega, regional director of Banorte, and Iván Herrera Rosiles, deputy director of Sports of the City Council.
Special guest, Yucatecan Gilda Cota Vera, who is a silver medalist of the Paralympic Games in Paris 2024, and who is also the coordinator for the inclusion of people with disabilities, was present at the starting line.
TYT Newsroom
