The Rio de Janeiro Marathon hopes to grow in importance with the coming of the 2016 Olympics.
More than 4000 runners took part in the race Sunday, the course winding north from Barra da Tijuca, where many of the 2016 events will take place, to Copacabana, another cluster of Olympic venues.
The 2011 marathon served as the official marathon for the World Military Games, which opened this weekend in Rio de Janeiro.
Rio Marathon organizers are working to make the race one of the premier marathons in the world and they are using the Olympics to help achieve that goal.
Luzia Canepa, executive director for Dream Factory, the company that stages the marathon, told ATR that organizers are promoting the Rio Marathon at all the major marathons. After an extended hiatus, the Rio Marathon only returned to action in 2003.
"We have a goal to be one of the major marathons in the world by 2016" she says.
So far the work seems to be paying off. Canepa says there is a 100 percent increase in the number of foreign runners.
She says Rio has one priceless asset that can put the marathon among the elite races—the Olympics.
Canepa said the 2016 Games will draw more attention to Brazil and they plan to leverage that as best as possible.
"Rio is becoming a very important city for everything, not just for sports," she said. "People are watching Rio more and more. Every brand is looking to Rio now. The Olympics are helping us."
Top Runner Says Olympics Good for Brazil Sport
Marilson Santos, Brazil’s top marathon runner and two-time New York Marathon champion, says the 2016 Olympics will help sports overall in Brazil.
"The Olympics are not only for athletics, for marathon, but for sports as a whole," Santos told ATR. "It brings more people to the sport to watch the sport, to practice the sport.
"But the marathon, in Brazil we don’t have the culture of the marathon. People are still scared of the distance."
Santos says that in less than 10 years, there has been substantial growth in the number of participants. He added he has "no doubt" that in a few years as many as 15,000 runners will compete in the event.
While Santos eyes increased participation in the marathon, he’s not sure he’ll make it to the 2016 Olympics; he is now 33.
Still he says it’s his dreamto race at home someday. He said he has yet to do so because must continually run against the best runners in the world who prefer to compete at marquee races such as the Berlin, London, and New York marathons.
While the 2016 Olympics are questionable for him, the London Olympics are not. Santos said he hopes to medal at the Games and he predicts a solid performance from Brazil in athletics.
"The whole track and field team has good hopes of medals, especially in the field events" he says.
He also approves of the London 2012 marathon course. "Some people didn’t like the course because it is a circuit but for me it is very good."
The Rio marathon is almost entirely flat, other than one hill, far less challenging than London he says, but good for personal bests.
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