Italian marathon champion Oukhrid Lhoussaine to participate in Malta edition

Oukhrid Lhoussaine, Italy’s national marathon champion, will be one of the favourites to win the Malta edition after the local organisers announced his participation.

His presence adds up to the foreign athletes that will be lining up on the start and strive to win this year’s 42km race.

Lhoussain, whose personal best is 2:12:04 set in 2015, won the Italian title on February 2, crossing the line first in the Maga Circe Marathon in a time of 2:16:58.

Challenging him for the Malta marathon title will be Alaa Hrioud, three-time French champion, Aziz Ait Ourkia who is at the back of a victory at the Morocco’s half-marathon, 2016 Rio marathon participant Abdelmajied El Hissouf, Moussab Hadout (second place in the 2024 Montreal marathon), Rahal Boucfar (personal best of 2:13:37), last year’s winner of the Stracandiolo in Turin Said Sachchach and Abdelali Razyn who set a new best time of 1:02:33 in Spain’s half-marathon in October.

Malta’s main challengers will be Andrew Grech, second overall last year in the full marathon and Charlton Debono, who recently ran a 2:23:33 in last year’s Valencia marathon.

Jemima Farley, back-to-back winner of the women’s Malta marathon, starts as favourite to retain the title having also set the race’s record time of 2:35:41.

She is expecting a fierce challenge by Morocco’s Sana Achahbar, winner of last year’s half-marathon.

A total of 4,730 athletes have registered for the 40th Malta Marathon with a record presence of foreigners with 2,600 from 80 countries around the world and a further 500 foreigners residing in Malta.

At the start, there will also be 700 children taking part in a race over a distance of 1.5KM and a 5K race with 300 participants.

The 40th edition of the Malta marathon will be held on Sunday, February 23, starting from Mdina (at 7am) before the athletes cross the finish line at Sliema.

START TIMES

Malta Marathon – Starts at Mdina at 7am and has a 5-hour time limit.
Malta Half-Marathon – Starts Mdina at 8.15am and has a 3-hour time limit.
Malta ‘Endo’ Walkathon which is also part of the Half-Marathon – Mdina at 8.15am and has a 3.75-hour time limit.
Walkathon participants are advised to be all be behind the Half-Marathon participants at the start or they could be disqualified.
5K Charity Run & Walk – Starts at Sliema (at the Malta Marathon finish) at 7.10am and has a 1.25-hour time limit.
Kids 1.5K Race – Starts at Sliema (at the Malta Marathon finish) at 08.35am.