Ostrava Marathon

The Ostrava Marathon (Ostravský maraton) is an annual road marathon held in the city of Ostrava in the Czech Republic each September. It was first held in 1954.

History
The inaugural marathon was held in 1954. On seven occasions (1956, 1958, 1960–62, and 1964–65), the race distance was limited to 25 km. Between 1966 and 1973 the race was not held at all, due to the death of its original organiser, Slávek Mozga. It resumed in 1974. The race has functioned as the Czechoslovakia (later Czech Republic) national championship on five occasions; in 1996, women's race winner Kateřina Gerová-Šromová was not awarded the national title as there was only one entrant in the race. Women first ran the race in 1974, but took part only sporadically until 1986, since which there has only been one race (1997) without a recorded woman finisher.

Other races
The Ostrava Marathon takes place alongside a variety of other running distances including Half marathon and Quarter marathon (10.5 km).

Winners
The race has been won a record 8 times by Ethiopian-born Czech runner Mulugeta Serbessa, who took victories in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2014. Pavel Kantorek set the course record of 2:19:06 in 1959. Czech, and formerly Czechoslovak, runners have dominated the race, with only a few other European nationalities coming in first place. Kazimierz Orzeł of Poland and Sigrun Macheleidt of East Germany are the only foreign race winners with multiple successes (two each). The most successful female runner is Petra Pastorová, who won the event six consecutive years from 2017 to 2022.

Key:
 * Course record (in bold)
 * National championship race

Multiple wins
Athletes with at least three wins listed.