The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of 42.195 km, 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 divisions. More than 800 marathons are held worldwide each year, with the vast majority of competitors being recreational athletes, as larger marathons can have tens of thousands of participants.
World records in the marathon are ratified by World Athletics, the international governing body for the sport of athletics.
Eliud Kipchoge is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes in the marathon and formerly specialized in the 5000 metres. Regarded as one of the greatest marathon runners of all time, he is the 2016 and 2020 Olympic marathon champion, and was the world record holder in the marathon from 2018 to 2023, with a time of 2:01:09 set at the 2022 Berlin Marathon, until that record was broken by Kelvin Kiptum at the 2023 Chicago Marathon with a time of 2:00:35. He has run four of the 10 fastest marathons in history.
François N'Doumbé Léa is a Cameroonian professional footballer who played as a defender. He was a non-playing squad member for the Cameroon national team at the 1982 FIFA World Cup. He also was part of the side that won the 1984 African Cup of Nations. At a club level he played for Union Douala in Cameroon.
The following tables are an overview of all current national records in the marathon, as compiled by World Athletics and other authoritative sources of road racing statistics.
"Zangaléwa" is a 1986 song by Cameroonian makossa group Golden Sounds, later known as "Zangalewa" after the success of the song. The band's members were Jean Paul Zé Bella, Victor Dooh Belley, Emile Kojidie, and Annie Anzouer.
Golden Sounds, later known as Zangaléwa, was a makossa group from Cameroon, formed in 1984 by active members of Cameroon's presidential guard: Jean Paul Zé Bella, Dooh Belley, Luc Eyebe and Emile Kojidie. The group is most famous for its song, "Zangaléwa", which was a huge hit in Africa after its release in 1986, and was revived in 2010 when Shakira sampled it for the 2010 FIFA World Cup as Waka Waka.
Sara Hall is a professional American distance runner for ASICS. Hall's personal best time for the marathon is 2:20:32 set at the Marathon Project in Chandler, Arizona on December 22, 2020, making her the third-fastest American woman in history. She is the second-fastest American woman ever to run the half marathon, running 1:07:15 on January 16, 2022–an American record at the time.
Gabrielle Aboudi Onguéné is a Cameroonian footballer who plays for CSKA Moscow in the Russian Championship and the Cameroon national team. She previously played for Rossiyanka.
Rik Vercoe is a British ultramarathon runner from Walton on Thames, Surrey, England. In 2013 he set the British record for most marathons completed in 365 days, having run 152 races at marathon distance and above.
Peres Jepchirchir is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner who competes mainly in road running competitions. She won the gold medal in the women's marathon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Jepchirchir was the champion at the 2016 and 2020 World Half Marathon Championships. She claimed victories at the 2021 New York City and 2022 Boston Marathon and finished third at the 2023 London Marathon. She claimed a further victory at the 2024 London Marathon, finishing in two hours, 16 minutes and 16 seconds and breaking the women’s only world record.
Cameroonian Sports Federation for the Visually Impaired (FECASDEV) (French: Fédération camerounaise de sports pour déficients visuels (Fécasdev)) is the national sports federation for people with vision impairments. The organization is one of four member federations of the Cameroonian Paralympic Committee and is a member of the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA).
Jean Jacques Ndoudoumou is a public servant and disability sports administrator from Cameroon. An albino, he faced discrimination growing up. He later became the General Director of the Cameroonian Regulatory Board for Public Procurement (ARMP) in 2001, leaving in 2012 after he was fired in the midst of a scandal.
Lawrence Cherono is a Kenyan long-distance runner. He is currently the 8th fastest marathon performer of all time with his 2:03:04 clocking at the 2020 Valencia Marathon. Cherono is a past winner of both the Boston and Chicago marathons.
René Philombé, pen name of Philippe Louis Ombedé, born in the city of Ngaoundere, was a Cameroonian writer, journalist, poet, novelist, and playwright who mostly wrote in French. He was one of the founders of the Association of Cameroonian Poets and Writers (APEC) of which he was the secretary for 20 years. He received the Mottart Prize from the Académie Française and the Fonlon-Nichols prize from the African Literature Association.
Sacred Heart College is a private Catholic secondary boarding school for boys, located in Mankon, Northwest Region of Cameroon. It is managed by the Archdiocese of Bamenda, and is known for producing some of the best results in the General Certificate of Education Ordinary and Advanced Levels in Cameroon.
Gervais Mendo Ze was a Cameroonian linguist, academic, author, and government official. He directed Cameroon Radio Television from 1988 to 2005.
Marinette Ngo Yetna was a Cameroonian politician who served as a Deputy.
This is a timeline of the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon during 2023.
Arsène Salomon Mbani Zogo, better known as Martinez Zogo, was a Cameroonian journalist and radio presenter known for his radio show Embouteillage, which reported upon government corruption in Cameroon. In January 2023, Zogo was abducted, tortured and assassinated; over twenty members of Cameroon's intelligence service, the Direction générale de la recherche extérieure, have subsequently been arrested for his death, in addition to Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, a Cameroonian media magnate.
