Mohammed Hajjy was the winner of the 2017 Malta Marathon, the biggest since its inception.

The Moroccan runner made up for last year's disappointment of finishing fourth when he crossed the finish line in a time of two hours 21 minutes and six seconds.

Hajjy's time was well short of his own Malta Marathon record he had set in 2013 when clocking a time of 2:16.06.

Andrew Grech was the first Maltese runner home in a PB of 2:28.17

There was a record number of 4,538 applications for the full and half marathon, 2,481 of these being foreigners, a 16% increase over 2016.

The run was held under a blazing sun and a slight breeze. 

The runners of the full marathon started at 7.30am from Mdina, with those taking part in the half-marathon departing at 9.10am. The finish line for both races was in Sliema.

The winners were: Full (Men): Mohammed Hajjy, Yassine Kabbouri and Dmitris Serjogins; Jonathan Balzan behind Andrew Grech as 2nd Maltese.

Full (Women): Josann Attard Pulis at 2.58.13 winner and first Maltese, Catherine Chetcuti and Jana Ba followed.

Half (Men): Micrezko Maciek of Poland at 1.09.28 winner with Pasquale Ruttigliano and Luigi Spinali behind, Stephen Borg first Maltese at 6th with 1.14.28.

Half (Women): Lisa Marie Bezzina was the winner in 1.22.06.