Enschede Marathon receives World Athletics Heritage Plaque

Today World Athletics announced that Enschede Marathon will be awarded the prestigious World Athletics Heritage Plaque. “Of course we are very happy with this,” says Sandra Melief, director of Enschede Marathon. “It is a great honour and an enormous boost for the organisation and all the employees. We have had an eventful time in which we have shown that we always think in terms of possibilities and can react quickly. It’s great to receive such a token of appreciation.”

Mission Marathon
In 2022, the Enschede Marathon, as the oldest marathon in the Netherlands (and even in Western Europe), will celebrate its 75th anniversary. “That in itself is very special and was the reason for the award,” Melief says. “But we also receive this award as a token of appreciation for organising the NN Mission Marathon at Twenthe Airport last minute on 18 April this year. Two weeks before, this marathon in Hamburg, where many top runners hoped to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, could not take place. We then took over the organisation. An enormous job, which we all managed to do successfully.”

In good company
The World Athletics Heritage Plaque was established in 2018 by World Athletics President Sebastian Coe. The award, a handsome, gold-coloured plaque, is given annually to individuals or organisations that have made “an outstanding contribution to the global history and development of the sport of athletics.” Enschede Marathon is in particularly good company with this award, as the New York Marathon also received it today. “We as a city can therefore be very proud of our marathon,” says Niels van den Berg, deputy mayor and alderman for Sport of Enschede. “It shows the city at its best: from organisation to participants and public. We really do this together.” The plaque will soon be displayed in the City Hall, so everyone in Enschede can admire it.

Special edition
The 52nd edition of Enschede Marathon will be held on Sunday, April 24, 2022. “And we are going to make it even more of a party than usual”, Melief concludes. “Of course because of this beautiful award, but especially because the regular editions of 2020 and 2021 could not take place. We are therefore very much looking forward to it.”