Belfast City Marathon: Race returns after Covid cancellations
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The race started in Stormont Estate
Thousands of runners have taken part in this year's Belfast City Marathon.
More than 5,700 entered what was the first marathon to be held in the city since 2019, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The race began at 09:00 BST on Sunday on Prince of Wales Avenue in the Stormont Estate.
Irish Olympian Mick Clohisey was the first across the line in Ormeau Park, while Fionnuala Ross was first in the women's race.
Mick Clohisey celebrates his marathon win alongside his two-year-old son, Paul
The 26.2 mile-long (42.1 km) race took runners across east, north, west and south Belfast, before finishing in Ormeau Park.
Roads along the route closed at 06:00 and reopened again once all runners had passed.
It was the first time the marathon had been held in October. The event normally takes place in May but was delayed due to coronavirus restrictions.
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A relay and wheelchair race following the same route of the marathon also took place, along with a 2.5 mile (4km) fun run and an 8 mile (12.8km) walk.
It was Northern Ireland's largest mass participation sporting event since the pandemic began.
"It wasn't quite clear whether we could go ahead or not for quite a while and to some extent we took a little bit of a risk in deciding it could go ahead," Belfast City Marathon chairman John Allen said.
"It has been relatively more low-key because because of that slight risk."
Fionnuala Ross crosses the finish line, winning the women's race
Mr Allen said the record number of entrants this year was due to some people's entries being deferred from 2020.
"They entered originally about a year or so ago and we had to move their entries forward," he said.
No top international runners took part this year, according to Mr Allen.
Kenya's Joel Kositany won the event for the fourth time in 2019, crossing the finish line with a time of two hours 18 minutes and 40 seconds.
Meanwhile Caroline Jepchirchir, also from Kenya, set the fastest ever women's time in Belfast, with a 2:36.38 clocking, as she repeated her 2018 win.
Queues
On Sunday morning, Belfast City Marathon apologised on social media "for the lengthy waits experienced for many" when picking up race packs on Saturday.
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Anger was voiced on social media on Saturday as a number of people booked to take part said they had to queue for several hours to pick up their race packs.
Marathon organisers posted online that there were large queues and asked people to be patient.
Race organisers were forced to apologise in 2019 after admitting the course was 0.3 miles longer than it should have been.
In a statement at the time, then chairman David Seaton said "protocols will be put in place to ensure this never happens again".
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