Nicosia Marathon (branded The Quantum Nicosia Marathon) is an international

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

(42.195 km) that courses through

Nicosia Nicosia ( ; el, Λευκωσία, Lefkosía ; tr, Lefkoşa ; hy, Նիկոսիա, romanized: ''Nikosia''; Cypriot Arabic: Nikusiya) is the largest city, capital, and seat of government of Cyprus. It is located near the centre of the Mesaor ...

. Its inaugural run was held in October 10, 2010. as a

half-marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcut ...

race. It was founded in 2010. by the

Athanasios Ktorides Foundation Athanasios Ktorides Foundation is a non-profit philanthropic organisation founded in 2008 by Nasos Ktorides, the first Cyprus Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. The Foundation promotes sport and culture with humanitarian work. It is organizer of th ...

to commemorate 2500 years of

Battle of Marathon The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination of ...

. The course begins at the

Famagusta Gate The Famagusta Gate ( tr, Mağusa Kapısı) is a gate in the Nicosia walls, Cyprus. It is the chief gate of the city: the Porta Giuliana, or "di sotto" of Fra Stefano Lusignano's " Chorograffia", known as Famagusta Gate in modern times. This const ...

, chief gate of old Nicosia walls, and comes back. QNM 2010 - Start of Marathon

Description

The Quantum Nicosia Marathon is organized and founded by the Athanasios Ktorides Foundation. It is branded as Quantum Nicosia Marathon after name of its main sponsor Quantum Energy. First Quantum marathon took place in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

on October 10, 2010. as a

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcu ...

and 4.6 km race.Nicosia Marathon
/ref> It was organized just 2.500 years after

, which took place in 490 BC. More than 5.000 runners participated in first marathon race in Nicosia. Winner of first marathon race in 2010 was

Konstantinos Poulios Konstantinos Poulios (born 19 September 1977) is a Greek long-distance runner. He was born in Athens and originates from Trikala. He competed in the marathon at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London London is the capital and List of urban ar ...

with time 1:06:31. Next marathon was organized on December 9, 2012, when took place a

, a

, a 10 km run, a 5 km run and a 1 km UNICEF Charity run. More than seven thousand runners participated in the Quantum Nicosia Marathon.SPORTS: Voyiatzis wins Nicosia marathon, Financial Mirror 10 December, 2012
/ref> Marathon took place on streets of

. Start and finish of race was at the

, chief gate of old Nicosia walls. The Quantum Nicosia Marathon course is of a low

degree of difficulty Degree of difficulty (DD, sometimes called tariff or grade) is a concept used in several sports and other competitions to indicate the technical difficulty of a skill, performance, or course, often as a factor in scoring. Sports which incorporate ...

. The Marathon flame arrived for first time on

on December 6, 2012, just 3 days before start of the Quantum Nicosia Marathon.The Marathon flames travels to Cyprus and Antarctica
/ref>

Nasos Ktorides Athanasios "Nasos" Ktorides ( el, Αθανάσιος "Νάσος" Κτωρίδης; born 10 November 1968) is a Cypriot entrepreneur and philanthropist, founding Chairman and CEO of the EuroAsia Interconnector electricity cable, Quantum Corporatio ...

had honour to bring the Marathon Flame first to the

Antarctic Ice Marathon The Antarctic Ice Marathon was established by Richard Donovan and Polar Running Adventures to enable marathon runners to complete a marathon on all seven continents. It also enables athletes to complete the marathon grand slam – a marathon on ...

and then to Cyprus. At Athalassa park in Nicosia on December 2, 2018 it was organized 7,7 km race in honour of Cypriot Marathon runner Stelios Kyriakides who won the

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was i ...

in 1946. Race distance symbolically represents Kyriakides jersey number 77 during his winning Boston race. Winners of the Quantum Nicosia Marathon 2022, men

Winners of the Quantum Nicosia Marathon 2022, men

Despite the Covid-19 restrictions, the “Quantum Nicosia Marathon 2021” included the Half Marathon, the “Stelios Kyriakides 7.7 miles”, the 5K Race and the sMile Run. On December 11, 2022, the races for the “Quantum Nicosia Marathon 2022” included the Marathon and Half Marathon (starting from University of Cyprus Library), and the “Stelios Kyriakides 7.7 miles”, the 5K Race and the Quantum sMile Run, start and finish at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre.Harakis, Kawalec winners of the Nicosia Marathon, Finnancial Mirror, 11.December 2022
/ref> Yiorgos Harakis from Cyprus and Anna Kawalec from Poland were winners of the «Quantum Nicosia Marathon 2022. All the funds from the participation fees are donated to the Little Heroes, the Parents and Friends of Children with Heart Disease, the Alkinoos Artemiou Foundation, Autism Cyprus, Mothers and Relatives of National Guard PEMSE and the Nicosia Municipal Multipurpose Community Centre.

Accreditation

The marathon is recognized by the

Association of International Marathons and Distance Races The Association of International Marathons and Distance Races, also known as AIMS, is an association of the organisers of long-distance road running races. It was founded in 1982 at a meeting in London of marathon race directors. Its membership w ...

and the

International Association of Athletics Federations World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

.Certificate of membership in AIMS
/ref> Roads are officially closed to traffic throughout the entire length of the race and medical support is offered along the race course.

Participation

Runners are mostly European but participation from

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

are very common. The oldest runner was Cypriot Andreas Pampakas, aged 76 with children as young as 4 years old participating as well. The Athanasios Ktorides Foundation simultaneously with the marathon organized “''Winner’s Fair''” with many different activities. All proceeds are donated to the Cyprus Anti-Cancer Society. The Foundation also from the marathon participations' revenue supported the charitable institutions “''One Dream One Wish''", The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, the ''Association of Parents and Friends of Children with Heart Disease'' and

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...