TCS Amsterdam Marathon on Oct. 16

The 36th edition of the Tata Consultancy Serivces (TCS) Amsterdam Marathon will take place on Sunday October 16, 2011. More than 12,000 runners will be taking part in the marathon whose start and finish is in the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It will be broadcast live on Eurosport, in collaboration with the organisers Le Champion.

Simone Richardson, director of the Le Champion, said "35,000 participants from 80 countries around the world are coming to Amsterdam. We expect an exciting race with top times and it is fantastic that we can show this to the many athletics fans across Europe."

This race, one of Europe’s oldest, was first held in 1975 where the start and finish were at the Olympic Stadium. The start, which is still at the Olympic Stadium, takes place in front of the grandstand where runners get to soak in 80 years of Olympic history. Start and finish were at the Olympic Stadium. The first marathon was won by Joergen Jensen from Denmark, who ran the distance in 2.16.51.

The marathon has moved venue a number of times, the first time being in 1980 when the start and finish were relocated to Dam Square which was also the memorable year in which Dutchman Gerard Njiboer set a new Dutch record of 2:09:01, also the second best time in the world. This was to remain the Dutch record for 23 years.

The Dam Square venue saw another 9 marathons until 1989 when the start and finish were moved to Museumplein. In 1996, the Amsterdam Marathon moved back to its original start and finish area, the Olympic Stadium of 1928.

Since then, many records have been broken. In 1999, five athletes finished the marathon course in less than 2 hours and ten minutes, moving Amsterdam into the world’s top ten fastest marathon cities. The marathon has grown considerably since the first edition in 1975. By 2002, over 10,000 runners finished the race. And the 28th Amsterdam Marathon, in 2003, saw a number of records being broken. Kamiel Masse finally broke the 23-year-old Dutch record by fellow countryman Gerard Njiboer with an impressive 2:08:31. And Kenyan William Kipsang won the race with a record-breaking time of 2:06:39. Just as incredible was the record for women run by Ethiopian Gete Wami (2:22:19) and the 40% increase in the number of participants, which exceeded 10,000 for the first time.

The following year, the record was once again broken when Robert Cheboror shaved 16 seconds off Kipsang’s time and passed the finish line in 2:06:23.

The 30th anniversary of the Amsterdam Marathon saw yet another track record broken. This time by running legend Haile Grebrselassie, who beat Cheboror’s record by just three seconds. And the field was increased to an all-time high of 19,900 runners from 61 countries. This year’s race will see a record number of representatives from 81 countries at the starting line.

The 2010 edition of the Amsterdam Marathon saw Getu Feleke of Ethiopia win the race in 2:05:44. And Kenyan Alice Timbilil took the women’s title with 2:25:01.