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90 Years of the Košice Marathon – Europe’s oldest marathon – an anniversary photo exhibition in Berlin - Horst Milde reports ©Gerd Steins
90 Years of the Košice Marathon – Europe’s oldest marathon – an anniversary photo exhibition in Berlin – Horst Milde reports
The Košice Marathon is a recognized name in the international running community. This event has been carried out in Košice (earlier known as Kaschau in German), Slovakia, since 1924.
That makes this marathon Europe’s oldest event that has been carried out continuously without any major interruptions. Only the Boston Marathon has a longer tradition, which originated in 1897.
The race is officially called Košice Peace Marathon – and has been able to hold its own over the decades despite competition from many other city races.
Olympic champion Abebe Bikila (ETH) is the most prominent winner in Košice, who won the race in 1961. Many big names in the history of the sport have participated – some have won, some did not – but they all have played their parts in the history of this event and contribute to the historical tradition of this race.
A few German runners have been recorded in the champions’ list at the Košice Marathon, as well, such as Paul Hempel (1926 and 1929), Hans-Joachim Truppel (1981), Jörg Peter (1987) and Michael Heilmann (1988).
The uncrowned queen of Košice, however, is Christa Vahlensieck, who won the race five times (1981/1984/1986/1987 and 1988).
On the occasion of the 90th anniversary, Brano Koniar, Race Director of the Košice Marathon, had the idea to present an anniversary photo exhibition in Berlin at the AIMS Marathon Museum of Running – the MARATHONEUM – in the Berlin Olympic Park.
Due to the extensive renovations taking place in the museum, that was not possible, but in cooperation with the Berlin Half Marathon, the exhibition was able to be presented during the race expo from April 25-26, 2014, in the excellent location of the former Tempelhof Airport.
More than 25,000 participants in the Berlin Half Marathon and many other expo visitors were able to enjoy the photographs and be inspired by the long and successful history of the Košice Marathon.
The exhibit was officially opened by the Slovakian Ambassador, Igor Slobodník, and by Dr. Heiner Brandi of the Berlin Sports Association.
Race Director Brano Koniar and his team not only led many visitors through the exhibit – and shared the background of the historical development of the race – but they also passed out current invitations for their race on October 5, 2014.
The photographs in the exhibition presented the Košice Marathon with all of the facets of the development of the sport of running, and they were wonderfully captioned – not only in the Slovak language, but excellently translated into German and English as well.
For the Košice Marathon, this exhibition in the German capital was a nice way to be recognized for the long and successful history of the organizers, who, 90 years ago, had the wise insight to develop the marathon into a showpiece for their country.
Horst Milde
Kosice Peacemarathon
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