Another round of the Belgrade Marathon is behind us. This year marked the 36th edition of the region’s largest sporting spectacle, with three dynamic days of athletic festivities that shattered numerous records, including the number of runners – around 10,500 participants ran along the spring-scented streets of the Serbian capital.
BrightMarbles Group Holding (BMGH), as the exclusive technological partner, played the major role in the event’s organization. Our team of engineers developed the BG Marathon web and mobile apps and monitored their performance throughout the race, with a clear plan of further development of the tech aspect of the entire manifestation.
Beogradski maraton d.o.o, as the organizer of the marathon race, arranged many sporting and business events during the week before the race to communicate its values and promote a healthy lifestyle.
First, let’s say a few words about the collaboration between BMGH and Beogradski maraton d.o.o.
Later on, we’ll talk about the sporting side of the Belgrade Marathon and its effect on the entire community.
BrightMarbles and Marathon App
At BMGH, we always highlight, advocate, and practice excellence in our daily errands. Of course, you can do business in different ways, and excellence is a color with many shades.
The cunning plan behind everything we do is to invest all our knowledge, experience, and operability in the projects we’re working on. As every project is a living matter, we learn along the way, while trying to deliver seamless, and bug-free solutions; we’re only humans, after all, as Rag’N’Bone Man would say.
BM Insight: In software development – mobile apps included – the final product’s efficiency and quality depends on the testing procedures, among many other things. Our quality assurance (QA) team leaves no code unturned to ensure meticulous, continuous testing throughout the software development process. Find out more about special QA forces in the blog post Quality Assurance: The Measure of Software Development Excellence.
It was this hunger for perfection that made BrightMarbles and Beogradski maraton d.o.o. click and start a business collaboration.
Our main professional goal for this year’s marathon was to reinvent the BG Marathon tech platform. The major functionality that we agreed to introduce was the option to track each runner from the race start to the end. The competition numbers came with integrated tracking devices which were automatically scanned at the beginning. Provided by a third party, this tracking functionality was successfully integrated into the marathon app by the BMGH engineers.
Prior to the race, the participants could register for the race and get the payment details for the participation fee via that very app.
In the following period, the joint plan of BMGH and Beogradski maraton d.o.o. is to keep adding new features to the marathon app and perfecting the overall tech infrastructure behind all the related events.
BM Insight: While our app development engineers carried out the better part of tasks on the BG Marathon app, a large team of cross-functional professionals brought it to life. Our designers, videographers, and marketers did their share of work, as well. As a matter of fact, that’s how we handle all our projects and tasks: we closely collaborate in the house to produce the best software solutions. Read more about the various professionals working on BrightMarbles’ business projects in the blog post The Entourage of IT Projects – The Binding Tissue of IT Software Development.
Running Events
The following running events took place within this year’s Belgrade Marathon.
The Marathon Race
The central Belgrade Marathon race started at 9 am, on April 23. The weather was a bit sultry and hot for an April Sunday. The streets of Belgrade were filled with shiny happy marathon runners coming from different corners of the world.
After precisely 2 hours, 14 minutes, and 28 seconds, the first marathon runner crossed the finish line. It was Chakib Lachgar, from Morocco. As the winner of this year’s marathon race, he had the honors to climb the highest position on the podium. Francis Cheruiyot from Kenya came second, only seven seconds behind him. Francis’s compatriot Johnson Kiprop Limo took third place, with the time of 2:17:13.
The first Serbian who finished the Marathon Race this year was Đuro Borbelj (2:42:57).
The winner of the women’s race is Feyne Gudeto Gemeda from Ethiopia, with 2:30:30. The second and third came Sardana Trofimova and Jane Moranga Onyangi from Kirgizia and Kenya, respectively.
The oldest runner this year was Vlada Stevanović (“Čika Vlada”), aged 89.
The 27th Children’s Race took place on April 15.
Half-marathon
There’s no marathon without a half-marathon race. Traditionally part of the Belgrade Marathon racing events, the BG Half-Marathon race was won by two runners from Kenya: Lydia Jebichii won the women’s race, and Bernard Wambua came first in the men’s race.
10-km Race and Aqua Viva “Trka zadovoljstva” Race (with Canine Race)
Bilja Cvijanović from Serbia was the first female runner to conquer the 10-km race, and her male counterpart was Uroš Gutić, from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It was a pleasure to see such a huge turnout for the 10-km race. As Beogradski maraton d.o.o. company – together with its sponsors and partners, BrightMarbles included – works hard to promote a healthy lifestyle, it seems that their effort has paid off. Based on what we saw in the 10-km race and the Aqua Viva “Trka zadovoljstva” and the canine race within it, more and more people run for leisure and fun.
Everything we do together makes sense only if we galvanize the wider community to adopt some positive habits and start caring about their minds and bodies.
Business Events
The Marathon Race and its spinoff sporting events are only one side of the medal. The other – equally important and potent – side is the business aspect of this massive event.
Without the networking and corporate matters discussed at those business events, the other events wouldn’t be possible. Our promo and biz squad took a chance to mingle, spread the word about our marathon mobile app, and take part in the accompanying panels and lectures.
Here’s what we think was most interesting and appealing for a wider audience.
Belgrade Marathon Running Expo
The Belgrade Marathon Running Expo was held on the premises of the Belgrade Fair, April 20-22. The aim of this string of events was to promote the values of the Belgrade Marathon while ensuring education, fun, and networking for runners, sponsors, and other involved parties.
During those three days, runners and their coaches explained how to prepare for a marathon race, including physical training and mental preparations. They talked about the most common injuries that marathon runners suffer from.
The panel discussion gathered doctors, physiotherapists, psychologists, professional runners, and recreational marathon racers.
Some running teams and their head coaches presented their tactics, visions, and preparations for marathon races.
Also, there were different workshops and educational events, such as the body combat practice, mixed aerobics, body balance, dance fitness, kangoo jumps, and many other interesting physical activities that promote a healthy lifestyle.
Our Mibsters were present at the Belgrade Marathon Running Expo, where we talked about our collaboration with Beogradski Maraton Company and presented our work on the BG Marathon mobile app.
BG Marathon’s Sports Forum
The program of the BG Marathon’s Sports Forum comprised many educational lectures.
BM Insight: Our CXO Nevena Nemeš talked about the functionalities of the BG Marathon mobile app. In her presentation, Nevena discussed the major advantages that this app brought to the runners and organizers of the Belgrade Marathon. She also described the business collaboration between BrightMarbles Group Holding and Beogradski maraton d.o.o. to make an as user-friendly app as possible.
We’d also like to highlight the presentation “Running as a business model”, held by Sašo Belovski, PhD – the director of the Prague SuperHalf Marathon.
Igor Radošević, PhD, from the Faculty of Physical Culture and Sports Management at the University of Singidunum, talked about the management of large sporting events, while Prof. Milica Vukašinović, PhD – the director of the Anti-Doping Agency of Serbia – held a lecture “Supplementation, hydration, and doping control.” Nevena Joksimović, our renowned marathon runner who has run all six World Series marathons (New York, Boston, Chicago, London, Berlin, and Tokyo).
Among many other presentations and lectures, we’d like to point out a view of the Belgrade Marathon from the business partners’ perspective – companies Nike, Enervit, and Mercator – and a take on the marathon race from the sports media’s point of view – TV Arena Sport and Viber.
The final touch on the BG Marathon Sports forum: it was an inspirative and network-boosting event that combined sports with business while promoting healthy living.
The Future of Two BMs
From the very beginning, the collaboration between BrightMarbles Group Holding and Beogradski maraton d.o.o. has been productive and innovative.
As highlighted above, we’re planning to advance the ongoing projects and keep bringing innovation into the world of running, both regionally and internationally.
Stay tuned for more running novelties and unique experiences produced by the two BMs.
About Author
Pavle Bobić, BrightMarbles’ resident wordsmith extraordinaire. With a passion for wordplay and a keen eye for eye-grabbing marketing materials, Pavle has been producing top-quality web content and copies for fintech, IT, and eCommerce since 2013. Now he keeps sharing his wealth of experience and expertise as part of the BrightMarbles team, making an impact by creating distinguished content across various digital channels.