体坛英语新闻：No elite athletes for Athens 33rd Authentic Marathon

ATHENS, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- In the light of the economic challenges facing debt laden Greece, the Greek organizers of the Athens Authentic Marathon decided to forego inviting an elite field of athletes for the 33rd edition of the race this year.

On Sunday November 8 the lights will turn to the long series of next door runners who inspire fellow citizens to keep going in every day struggles as role models. ?

The 84-year-old Stelios Prassas, the 81-year-old Heracles Vassiliades and the 72-year-old Despina Viga represented this category of runners in the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) Award Gala held in Athens a few hours before the start of the marathon.?

The three Greeks were awarded along Eliud Kipchoge and Mare Dibaba, the top male and female winners of the AIMS Best Marathon Runner Award for 2015.

The awards were voted for by AIMS members, made up of more than 390 of the world's leading and most prestigious distance races from more than 108 countries and regions. ?

The Kenyan Kipchoge and the Ethiopian Dibaba won some of the biggest marathon events in the past 12 months. Kipchoge won the Berlin Marathon in a world-leading time of 2:04:00 two months ago, while Dibaba won the world title in Beijing in 2:27:35 at the World Athletics Championships in August.

Prassas, Vassiliades and Viga do not have such impressive records and medals to show, but still won a warm applause for the example the set for younger generations.?

"We are common people. What we have to show for is how to build a character," Vassiliades said.?

He started participating in marathons in 1949. Over the past decade alone he has run 166 races, but never the Athens Classic Marathon. He was too busy offering his services as a volunteer. This year he will be at the starting point as a runner.?

Prassas started running marathon courses when he was 59 years old. He has competed in 18 countries worldwide. He will be among runners on Sunday for a 5th time in the original course from Marathon to Athens.?

Viga, has run 180 marathon courses in the past 15 years. On Sunday it will be the 9th time she takes part in the Athens Classic Marathon race.?

Next to the three white-haired role models will be another one: Yorgos Lazarides. The 44-year-old athlete is confined to a wheelchair over the past 25 years. He was 19 years old when he was involved in a car accident that left him a disabled person. Lazaridis overcame the terms "confined" and "disabled" in the sports field and outside in everyday life.?

He is a member of Greece's national tennis team of people with physical disabilities and is ready to run the 42 kilometers original marathon course for first time on Sunday.?

His goal is to reach the finish line and if possible win the ticket for his participation in the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. He competed in Beijing's Paralympics in 2008.?

Regardless of positions and times, the common message all 16,000 participants in the 42 kilometers race as well as the other 27,000 runners in shorter distance races will send to the world on Sunday is that the strength of human spirit can win physical boundaries.?

The Athens Marathon race originates from the historic battle between Greeks and Persian forces in Marathon city 2,500 years ago. According to legend, Athenian soldier Pheidippides ran from the battlefield to Athens to announce the Greeks' victory and died of exhaustion.

His name has been connected to a feat which has inspired modern Marathons worldwide.??