For seven consecutive years, Greek marathoner Kostas Hatzis has travelled to Athens from his residence within the Netherlands to participate within the Athens Marathon. On Wednesday, his plans to take part within the forty first version of the race (set for Sunday) got here to a halt when his suitcase, containing his conventional Greek costume, matching sneakers and Olympic Truce flag, was stolen from his automobile. He now provides a reward of €1,000 (CAD $1,491) for anybody who returns his belongings.
“My world collapsed,” Hatzis wrote on Fb. “My conventional Greek costume and matching sneakers had been snatched from me. My Olympic Truce flag, my operating outfits and all I would like for one week. I didn’t come all the way in which from my residence in NL to eat, drink and sleep in Athens.”Hatzis’s conventional Greek costume is the distinctive uniform of Greek troopers referred to as Tsoliades–proper right down to the fustanella (a kilt-like garment) and the tsarouchis (flat sneakers with pompoms). The Olympic Truce flag bears a drove with a conventional Olympic flame, symbolizing peace and human spirit.
The runner, who calls himself an “Worldwide Marathon Messenger“, runs to advertise the Historic Greek custom of Olympic Truce, or Ekecheiria. The custom acknowledges the signing of a treaty between three kings to permit protected participation within the Olympic Video games for people from the Greek city-states–Elis, Pisa and Sparta–regardless of ongoing conflicts.
In October, Hatzis took half in passing the marathon flame on the Kosice Peace Marathon in Košice, Slovakia, to honour the one hundredth version of Europe’s oldest marathon.
Sunday’s race was set to mark Hatzis’s eighth consecutive time competing within the Athens Marathon; his quickest time for the course is 5:17:26, which he ran in 2016. The runner has participated in numerous different marathons since 2012, together with the Barcelona Marathon, Paris Marathon, TCS Amsterdam Marathon and the HAJ Hannover Marathon.