Gaza's First Marathon 加沙首次举行马拉松赛

By Jon Donnison, BBC News

Palestinian Olympic athlete Nader el Masri (in yellow) participated in the marathon

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1000 多名在校学生参加了加沙有史以来的第一个马拉松赛。此次马拉松赛是由联合国工作人员 Gemma Connell 号召组织的。她与另外一名外国参赛者，还有7名加沙当地参赛者，共9人，跑完了全程。以下是 Jon Donnison 的报道。

Something new in Gaza. The tiny Palestinian territory is only just big enough to hold a marathon.

But luckily for the runners, the narrow strip of land next to the Mediterranean is almost exactly 26 miles long. The athletes covered it top to bottom. Hundreds of school children ran the distance in relays, running a mile or so each.

The event was organised by the United Nations. Some of their international staff even ran the whole distance.

And some of the athletes took it pretty seriously. Nader el Masri has Olympic form. The Gazan athlete competed in the 5000 metres in Beijing in 2008. He's hoping to qualify for London 2012.

He ran out a pretty easy winner, finishing in two hours 43 minutes.