The First International Marathon in Tehran Held Without Women

The first international marathon in Tehran, titled "Pars Marathon," took place on Friday morning, April 7, with only male runners participating, and three Iranians won in all three distances of the marathon. According to reports from Iranian news agencies, 200 runners from 40 foreign countries and 500 Iranian runners participated in this marathon. Contrary to initial announcements, female runners are scheduled to compete separately in an indoor space at Azadi Stadium on Friday evening. The first international marathon in Tehran, which was open to the public, was held on Friday morning with the slogan "I run in Iran" in three distances: a full marathon of 42 kilometers, a half marathon of 21 kilometers, and 10 kilometers. According to the state news agency IRNA, Hossein Kiani won first place in the 10-kilometer distance, while Mohammad Barzi secured the top spot in the 21-kilometer distance. In the 42-kilometer distance, Olympic runner Mohammad Jafar Moradi was crowned champion. Regarding the separate marathon for women, Masoud Soltani Far, the Minister of Sports and Youth, announced on Friday that "there was no discussion from the beginning about women competing with men." Meanwhile, according to ISNA news agency, several women who had registered to participate in this competition protested against the separation of women from men by running from Hassanabad to Azadi Square, where they cheered on the runners on the main race route. According to the latest reports, a quota of 200 has been set for women to participate in this marathon, with 150 slots allocated for Iranian women and 50 for foreign women. The first international marathon in Iran was held last year in Shiraz without the presence of women. Previously, the organizers of this marathon stated that runners from over 50 countries had registered to compete in this event. According to the provided statistics, 28 of these applicants were American, who were unable to obtain visas to participate in the race. However, the head of the Athletics Federation stated, "The overseas council had issued permits for everyone, and there were no restrictions, but the visa process has its own specific conditions, and some registered athletes may have faced issues themselves." An examination of the marathon registration page also shows that at least 31 British runners, 29 German runners, and four Canadian runners had registered to participate in this race. Meanwhile, Fars news agency reported that a 72-year-old Finnish runner, who has participated in 700 marathons, ran in this competition on Friday. Reports indicate that the people of Tehran did not show much enthusiasm for the marathon on Friday. In this context, Majid Kiani, the head of the Athletics Federation, said, "We need to gradually familiarize people with these competitions... even the crowd that was present along the race route seems satisfactory to me, and I hope that with the holding of these competitions and our fundamental actions, conditions will improve from now on." Mohammad Nahavandian, the head of the Iranian President's office, also shared a photo of himself running in this marathon on his Twitter account.