By Jon Donnison, BBC News

Palestinian Olympic athlete Nader el Masri (in yellow) participated in the marathon

媒体英语会带大家一起学习 BBC 撰稿人在报道世界大事时常用到的单词和短语。

1000 多名在校学生参加了加沙有史以来的第一个马拉松赛。此次马拉松赛是由联合国工作人员 Gemma Connell 号召组织的。她与另外一名外国参赛者，还有7名加沙当地参赛者，共9人，跑完了全程。以下是 Jon Donnison 的报道。

Something new in Gaza. The tiny Palestinian territory is only just big enough to hold a marathon.

But luckily for the runners, the narrow strip of land next to the Mediterranean is almost exactly 26 miles long. The athletes covered it top to bottom. Hundreds of school children ran the distance in relays, running a mile or so each.

The event was organised by the United Nations. Some of their international staff even ran the whole distance.

And some of the athletes took it pretty seriously. Nader el Masri has Olympic form. The Gazan athletecompeted in the 5000 metres in Beijing in 2008. He's hoping to qualify for London 2012.

He ran out a pretty easy winner, finishing in two hours 43 minutes.

• running [´rʌniŋ]   a.奔跑的；流动的   (初中英语单词)
• international [,intə´næʃənəl]   a.国际的，世界的   (初中英语单词)
• seriously [´siəriəsli]   ad.严肃；严重，重大   (初中英语单词)
• mediterranean [,meditə´reiniən]   n.地中海 a.地中海的   (高中英语单词)
• athlete [´æθlit, ´æθli:t]   n.体育家；运动员   (英语四级单词)
• winner [´winə]   n.胜利者，得奖者   (英语四级单词)