National Marathon Championships from 1930 in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Until 2010 in the Republic of Serbia

Vesna Repić Ćujić, Irina Juhas Serbian Institute for Sports and Sports Medicine, Belgrade, Serbia; University of Belgrade, FSPE, Belgrade, Serbia.
Abstract The worldwide appearance of marathon, as athletic discipline, resulted in organizing of National Championships as well. In the majority of countries, they occurred between the two world wars, same applying to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The goal of this research was to find, gather, reconstruct and critically analyse the data about national championships from 1930 to 2010. With regard to the time frame, depending on historical events, it was divided into following periods: 1. from the 1st National Championship in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1930 to 1939; 2. from the National Championship of DFY in 1949 to 1990; 3. from 1992 to 2003, when Serbia and Montenegro ceased to exist; 4. from 2003 to 2010. The first data mentioning national championship goes back to 1930. The idea, according to the found information, was initiated by the marathon runner Dimitrije Stefanovic. During the period from 1930 to the beginning of the World War II, ten marathon championships had been held, one of which took place in Belgrade. There were only few competitors, which was also common for the national championships of other countries. During the period from 1949 to 1991, marathon was mainly organized within the national championships together with other disciplines, and after that, it became part of mass marathons. The analysis of quality and quantity of marathon national championships showed a great diversity. The results and number of competitors participating in marathons as part of the national championships were affected by: politics, the way of organizing marathon races, important events' dates, and later on prize money paid by the organizers of mass marathons.
	ATHLETICS / MARATHON / NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS	Full Article Download (276kB)

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