Success largely credited to voluntary cooperation by citizens
Daegu Marathon 2025, which began at Daegu Stadium on February 23 (Sun) at 9 am, was held with resounding success. It was participated in by 158 top-grade runners from 15 countries and 40,130 Masters athletes from 40 countries.
Daegu Marathon 2025
The most noteworthy outcome is that a course record was set that is very similar to the one for the New York City Marathon (2:05:06), one of six major international marathons, proving that the Daegu Marathon is quickly establishing itself as an event on par with global standards.
In the Full Course Overseas Men’s component, Gebriel Gerald Gay (age 29, Tanzania) won first place with a time of 2:05:20, a new Daegu Marathon record. Gay, who had not competed since 2022 (time: 2:03) due to an injury, received USD 130,000.
▲ Winner of Full Course Overseas (Men’s): Gebriel Gerald Gay
Addisu Gobena (age 20, Ethiopia), a rising star whose time last year was approximately 2:05 despite it being his first Full Course, finished with a time of 2:05:22, narrowly missing first place due to a difference of just 0.02 seconds. The intense competition among the runners made for especially fun viewing.
In the Full Course Overseas Women’s component, Meseret Belete Tola (age 26, Ethiopia) won first place with a time of 2:24:08.
▲ Winner of Full Course Overseas (Women’s): Meseret Belete Tola
Minho Park (age 26, Kolon Sports) won in the Full Course Domestic Men’s component with a time of 2:12:19.
▲ Winner of Full Course Domestic (Men’s): Minho Park
Jeongyun Choi (age 32, Chungcheongnam-do Office), winner of the Full Course Domestic Women’s component, made waves in Korean women’s marathoning with her time of 2:32:20. Choi reportedly trained in Jeju-do in the months preceding the marathon.
▲ Winner of Full Course Domestic (Women’s): Jeongyun Choi
Another priority of this year’s marathon was the Zero Accident goal. To ensure that all runners could concentrate without having to worry about safety, three arrival points were arranged to avoid overcrowding, bottleneck points were adjusted, and a total of 5,800 personnel (4,200 volunteers, 770 police officers) positioned throughout the course.
Furthermore, the number of shuttle bus routes was doubled, and Smile Photo Zones were established for all course categories to photograph all of the runners’ efforts. For Masters Full Course participants, a sports massage service was offered free of charge. Many requested that massages be provided on a broader scale for upcoming marathons.
The marathon was made even more special by appearances by Jaeguk Bae, a wheelchair marathoner, and his father and Bongju Lee, renown Korean marathoner who has become an icon of hope for his battle with muscular tension abnormality.
Twenty teams totaling 650 people were also positioned along all courses to cheer on the runners. They encouraged runners to persevere until the end through creative chants, songs and clapping.
Daegu Metropolitan City stressed that the biggest reason for this year’s success was the voluntary assistance provided by citizens in many areas, one example being the No Car Day campaign, which was held on the day of the marathon to minimize the discomfort that would be caused by controlling traffic. The decision by many citizens to take public transportation instead made it significantly easier to operate the marathon in an efficient and safe manner.
Mayor Hong Joon-pyo said, “It is thanks to the compassionate spirit and civic-mindedness of Daegu’s citizens that this year’s Daegu Marathon was held at a level that places it on par with the world’s six great marathons.”
Regarding next year’s marathon, Mayor Hong said that the date will be changed to the first Sunday of March based on negotiations with KAAF (Korea Association of Athletics Federations) and that the first place prize will be increased to USD 200,000 to make the Daegu Marathon “one of the world’s seven top marathons.”
