Costa Rican athlete Laurens Molina won this Sunday the 32nd annual Los Angeles marathon in the United States in the wheelchair category.
Laurens stopped the clock in 1 hour, 37 minutes, 21 seconds, earning the first place. Molina has been competing in this marathon since 1999 when he finished in position 44; he continued to take part of this competition and improving his mark year after year, in 2016 he had finished in third place, and it is today he was finally able to achieve his goal.

Molina marked 10 minutes and 29 seconds in the first 5 kilometers (3 miles), and by the 15 km he made 36 minutes and 20 seconds.
The Los Angeles Stadium to the Sea marathon is a 26.2 mile (42km) competition that begins at Dodger Stadium and ends in Santa Monica.

“I thought someone was closing with me, but when I looked back as I crossed the goal, there was no one there. It was my mind that wanted to win and placed rivals right behind me so I would make a hard effort and achieve my life goal, winning the Los Angeles marathon”, stated Molina.

Gabriela Traña, Costa Rican athlete competing in the female category was far from making the needed mark to classify to the 2017 World Championships in Athletics to be held in London, she stopped the clock at 3 hours three minutes and she needed a mark of 2:45:00 in order to classify.

Kenya athletes Elisha Barno (2:11:52) and Hellen Jepkurgat (2:34:23) took the first place in the men’s and women’s competitions respectively.

The LA Marathon has the participation each year of over 24,000 athletes from across the United States and 63 countries around the world.