The Jungfrau Marathon is one of the best known mountain marathons in the world, in full view of the famous Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau mountains in the Bernese Oberland area of the Swiss Alps.

Jungfrau Marathon
DateSeptember
LocationEiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau mountains, Switzerland
Event typeMountain running
DistanceMountain marathon
Established1993
Course recordsMen's: 2:49:01 (2003)
New Zealand Jonathan Wyatt
Women's: 3:12:56 (2017)
Switzerland Maude Mathys
Official siteJungfrau Marathon
Participants2,909 finishers (2021)
3,716 (2019)
The Jungfrau Marathon at km 40 in 2004
Swiss alphorn players and flag-waver
Spectators in Wengen
Moraine
Bagpiper at the moraine

The first Jungfrau Marathon was held in 1993. Approximately 3,500 runners from 35 different nations participate. The Jungfrau Marathon takes place each year in September.

The 2007 edition of the competition incorporated the World Long Distance Mountain Running Challenge and attracted 4200 participants from 50 countries.[1]

The course edit

The 42.195-kilometre (26.219 mi) course starts in Interlaken and climbs 6,407 feet (1,953 m) in elevation to the finish at the Eigergletscher. It used to finish at Kleine Scheidegg.[2]

The first 10 km of the course are flat. The race begins in central Interlaken and circles around the town centre before moving east to Bönigen, where runners briefly run along the shore of Lake Brienz. The race proceeds southwards to Wilderswil at the 10 km mark. From there the course heads upward through Zweilütschinen (at 15 km) to Lauterbrunnen (at 20 km). The course loops for 5 km south of the town before returning to Lauterbrunnen and then heading eastward up the alpside. It is at this point that the race is steepest, zigzagging up the hillside and climbing 450 m in the 5 km to Wengen. The course heads southeast and relentlessly upward over the Wengernalp, turning east and then northeast beneath the Eiger toward the finish. It finishes at Eigerletscher at an altitude of 2,320 m.[3] Shortly before leaving the moraine and turning towards the final ascent, the runners are traditionally greeted by a bagpipe player.

Past winners edit

Key:   Course record

Edition Date Men's Winner Time
(h:m:s)
Women's Winner Time
(h:m:s)
Notes
1st 25-09-1993   Jörg Hägler (SUI) 3:00:05   Birgit Lennartz (GER) 3:30:00
2nd 24-09-1994   Marco Kaminski (SUI) 3:02:05   Fabiola Rueda-Oppliger (SUI) 3:34:01
3rd 09-09-1995   Marco Kaminski (SUI) 3:00:19   Sibylle Blersch (SUI) 3:28:46
4th 07-09-1996   Marco Kaminski (SUI) 2:55:07   Isabella Moretti (SUI) 3:27:57
5th 06-09-1997   Marco Kaminski (SUI) 2:58:43   Franziska Rochat-Moser (SUI) 3:22:49
6th 05-09-1998   Petr Kadlec (CZE) 2:59:03   Irina Kazakova (FRA) 3:23:53
7th 04-09-1999   Marco Kaminski (SUI) 2:54:34   Svetlana Netchaeva (RUS) 3:23:38
8th 02-09-2000   Sergey Kaledin (RUS) 2:59:33   Svetlana Netchaeva (RUS) 3:22:04
9th 01-09-2001   Chaham El Maati (MAR) 2:56:37   Marie-Luce Romanens (SUI) 3:21:03
10th 6/7-09-2002   Tesfaye Eticha (ETH) 2:53:28   Chantal Dällenbach (FRA) 3:25:18
11th 06-09-2003   Jonathan Wyatt (NZL) 2:49:01   Emebet Abossa (ETH) 3:21:46
12th 11-09-2004   Tesfaye Eticha (ETH) 2:59:30   Emebet Abossa (ETH) 3:23:11
13th 10-09-2005   Tesfaye Eticha (ETH) 2:59:21   Emebet Abossa (ETH) 3:29:15
14th 09-09-2006   Tesfaye Eticha (ETH) 2:59:44   Simona Staicu (ROM) 3:26:26
15th 08-09-2007   Jonathan Wyatt (NZL) 2:55:33   Anita Håkenstad (NOR) 3:23:06
16th 06-09-2008   Hermann Achmüller (ITA) 3:03:18   Simona Staicu (HUN) 3:35:05
17th 05-09-2009   Jonathan Wyatt (NZL) 2:58:33   Claudia Landolt (CZE) 3:34:24
18th 09-09-2010   Marco De Gasperi (ITA) 2:56:42   Simona Staicu (HUN) 3:33:45
19th 10-09-2011   Markus Hohenwarter (AUT) 3:01:52   Aline Camboulives (FRA) 3:29:56
20th 8/9-09-2012   Markus Hohenwarter (AUT) 2:59:42   Stevie Kremer (USA) 3:22:42
21st 14-09-2013   Geoffrey Ndungu (KEN) 2:50:29   Andrea Mayr (AUT) 3:20:21
22nd 12-09-2014   Paul Michieka (KEN) 3:01.57   Aline Camboulives (FRA) 3:27:20 [4][5]
23rd 12-09-2015   Shaban Mustafa (BUL) 3:02.37   Aline Camboulives (FRA) 3:28:43
24th 10-09-2016   Robbie Simpson (GBR) 3:00.11   Martina Strähl (SUI) 3:19:15
25th 09-09-2017   José David Cardona (COL) 2:56.20   Maude Mathys (SUI) 3:12:56
26th 08-09-2018   Robbie Simpson (GBR) 2:56:31   Martina Strähl (SUI) 3:14:36
27th 07-09-2019   Robbie Simpson (GBR) 2:59.29   Simone Troxler (SUI) 3:36.13
28th 11-09-2021   José David Cardona (COL) 3:05.02   Laura Hottenrott (SUI) 3:36.13

References edit

  1. ^ Hughes, Danny (2007-09-08). Wyatt dominates World Long Distance Mountain Running Challenge …of course!. IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-06-23.
  2. ^ "Course - Jungfrau-Marathon Interlaken". www.jungfrau-marathon.ch. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  3. ^ "Course - Jungfrau-Marathon Interlaken". www.jungfrau-marathon.ch. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  4. ^ "22. Jungfrau-Marathon 2014, Interlaken - Ergebnisse". Datasport AG. Retrieved 2015-05-20.
  5. ^ "Jungfrau Marathon 2014". wengen.com. Retrieved 2015-05-20.

External links edit

46°35′06″N 7°57′40″E / 46.585°N 7.961°E / 46.585; 7.961