ZELENOGRAD HALF MARATHON SPRANDI, RUSSIA – 1 JUNE 2008

The 12th edition coincided with International Children's Defence Day and started with a mini-marathon (420m) for children under 10. The main race started 15 minutes later. Runners from 38 regions of Russia (of 84 in total) and from 10 other countries took part.

Given the windy weather 28-year old Ljubov Morgunova who won this year's Rotterdam marathon (2:25.12) – preferred a tactical rather than a fast race. She ran with Zinaida Semenova (marathon best of 2:26:57) and only in the last few kilometres did Morgunova, who being fourth-ranked in the marathon this year will not be running the Olympic Games in Beijing, get away from Semenova in a relatively modest winning time.

The men's struggle for victory was similar: only 300m from the finish line did last year's winner, 33-year old Sergey Lukin, accelerate ahead of 21-year old Ethiopian Asfaw Birhanu.

Source: www.aims.org

MEN:
1  Sergey LUKIN                      RUS  1:07:35
2  Asfaw BIRHANU                     ETH  1:07:39
3  Dmitriy LUKIN                     RUS  1:07:48
4  Ivan MOTORIN                      RUS  1:11:02
5  Aleksey ASHMANOVICHUS             RUS  1:11:19
6  Sergey SOROKIN                    RUS  1:12:18
7  Oleg KRAPIVIN                     RUS  1:13:23
8  Aboye ABOYE                       ETH  1:14:09
9  Timifey KJUN                      RUS  1:15:14
10 Vitaliy LOGINOV                   RUS  1:15:52
 
WOMEN:
1  Ljubov MORGUNOVA                  RUS  1:15:51
2  Zinaida SEMENOVA                  RUS  1:16:04
3  Rimma PUSHKINA                    RUS  1:17:19
4  Elena SOKOLOVA                    RUS  1:18:20
5  Irina KOZUBOVSKAIA                RUS  1:19:31
6  Zhanna MALKOVA                    RUS  1:19:54
7  Tatjana PEREPELKINA               RUS  1:21:53
8  Lidia VASILEVSKAIA                RUS  1:22:01
9  Natalia KAPUSTIAN                 RUS  1:24:56
10 Ekaterina KOKLEVA                 RUS  1:26:35