Brazil's Marathon Runners Among the World's Slowest

04/28/2015 - 09h25

Brazil's marathon runners are among the slowest in the world. They are literally miles behind runners from Spain or Iceland; and they also lose out to Costa Ricans and their "hermanos" from Argentina.

Yet there is some good news: they are still ahead of the Americans and runners from other rich nations such as Japan.

The information comes from one of the most comprehensive studies of marathon results yet undertaken.

Researchers from RunRepeat, a site specialized in reviews of running shoes, analyzed 2,195,588 marathon times in order to assess the performance of runners from 47 nations.

The study focused on the performance of marathon runners taking part in international events over the course of six years (from 2009 to 2014).

The average time for Brazilian runners over the six years was four hours, 21 minutes and 21 seconds, leaving the country in 33rd position. The athletes showed a slight improvement over time: from 2009 to 2014, they reduced their times by, on average, one minute and 24 seconds.

The champions are the Spanish, with an average of three hours, 55 minutes and 35 seconds, followed by the Portuguese (3h59min04) and Luxembourg (4h00min46). Bringing up the rear are India and the Philippines.

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

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	Kevin David/Brazil Photo Press/Folhapress/Folhapress
	Yet there is some good news: they are still ahead of the Americans and runners from other rich nations such as Japan