Baxters Loch Ness Marathon – Congratulations On A Record Breaking Year

On 4th October GORE RUNNING WEAR™ was delighted to enlist the help of TV presenter Konnie Huq to present the two new GORE RUNNING WEAR™ Runners Club Trophies at the Baxters Loch Ness Marathon, Inverness, Scotland.     

Following its inaugural success in 2008, The GORE RUNNING WEAR™ Runners Club Award was split into two new recognition awards for 2009, The Men’s Award and The Women’s Award.  Each award is given to the first male and first female member of a running club to complete the marathon and is in recognition of all running clubs and their members who help to drive and encourage the passion for running forward. 

The Men’s Award was won by Kenyan Simon Tonui of Birchfield Harriers who crossed the marathon finish line first in a record breaking 2 hours 20 minutes and 13 seconds, beating the previous course record set by Thomas Abyu in 2003 by 46 seconds.   The Women’s Award was won by Joice Kirui, also a member of Birchfield Harriers and the first female past the finish line with a time of 2:48:25. 

Each winner was presented with their own commemorative trophy and also received a Baxters Loch Ness Marathon branded jacket from GORE RUNNING WEAR™ and their event retail partner Run and Become. 

Kenyan Simon Tonui, winner of the 2009 Baxters Loch Ness Marathon and GORE RUNNING WEAR™ Running Club Trophy, said: “I’m very happy that I broke the course record. I enjoyed the run – the people along the route were very cheerful and the scenery was wonderful”.

Jonathan Bell from GORE RUNNING WEAR™ comments ‘We are delighted to have continued our support as official clothing sponsor of the Baxters Loch Ness Marathon & Festival of Running which had over 7500 runners this year taking part from over forty different nationalities.   Our congratulations go out to everyone who took part in this event and we particularly commend Simon Tonui and Joice Kirui who won the marathon as well as our Running Club Trophies.”