In a vote on the public media portal LSM.lv, four women and three men became known, who got the opportunity to prepare for the “Rimi” Riga Marathon for 16 weeks under the guidance of two coaches in the “My First Marathon” program. Voting closed on Sunday, December 14, one minute before midnight.
Among women voters, choreographer and dance teacher Diana Gavar received the most support, collecting 16.6% of votes in the women’s competition. Signe Lamstere (13.8%), Inga Āboltiņa (11.4%) and Arta Uma Upmale (10.7%) also entered the top four.
For men, the highest number of voters supported former national team volleyball player Pavel Yemeljanova (16.7% in the men’s competition), who will also be joined by Krists Spruksts (16.6%) and Lauris Karlušas (15.9%).
In order to choose the runners who will enter the starting line in their first half marathon or marathon on May 17, 2026, “Rimi” Riga Marathon in cooperation with the public media portal LSM.lv offered to vote for their favorites. The selected participants will prepare under the guidance of coaches in the “My First Marathon” program and will share their training process on social media, inspiring and motivating others as well.
The lucky ones chosen in the vote will become official participants of the program after health checks.
”My first marathon” is the “Rimi” Riga Marathon messenger program, which will provide 12 runners with all the necessary support for an intensive 16-week training phase, actively training both individually and together with teammates, accompanied by three professional coaches, in order to prepare for their first long distance – 21 km or 42 km – race.
Trainers Anita Siliņa-Kažemākas, Ilona Marhele and Nils Briedis will develop an individual training plan for each participant and provide the necessary support and advice during the entire program.
23 brightest candidates took part in the voting, which was the second round of selection – 15 women and 8 men. From the public vote, the seven participants who got the most votes got into the program. In total, the Riga Marathon will host 12 participants in the “Rimi” messenger program – some of the applicants will participate at the invitation of the organizers.
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