The 9th Siberian International Marathon (SIM) was held on the 1st of August, 1998 in the Western Siberian city of Omsk, Russia. Notwithstanding the unstable economic and politic situation, financial problems, and very hot weather, sportsmen from Omsk, 42 cities in Russia and abroad (there were 32 representatives of 8 countries) came to Omsk to participate in the "festival of friendship" as the Siberian International Marathon was called by its foreign participants. Everyone can find a distance for himself: a marathon, 5 miles fun-run, the mini-marathon for children, one mile inline-skating, the ekiden (marathon relay-race). Total number of runners was 6477.

The weather on the marathon day was windless, cloudless, and shining. The temperature at the start was 23 C, by the end of the race it raised up to 28 C.

As for the sport part of this event, there were a lot of surprises in it. During all race the leader of male marathon runners was Konstantin Permitin. Nearly everybody was sure that he will be the winner of the marathon, but to the great surprise of all spectators of the race he was outrun by Vladimir Netreba on the last 200 meters. It was a real sport feat. Vladimir Netreba took part in all previous 8 marathons, but he could not manage to take the first place till the 9th SIM. It was his lucky race. His result was 2:19.15. The weather was really hot, and certainly it disturbs both runners and spectators, but despite the heat Alina Ivanova broke the female course record that lasted for 5 years with the time 2.31.44. The overall male and female winners were awarded traditional new cars "LADA".

Men

1. Vladimir Netreba, Russia, 2:19:15
2. Konstantin Permitin, Russia, 2:19:34
3. Valeriy Zakharov, Russia, 2:25:54
4. Igor Tyupin, Russia, 2:27:17
5. Roman Kolesov, Russia, 2:27:22

Women

1. Alina Ivanova, Russia, 2:31:44
2. Svetlana Ponomarenko, Russia, 2:42:37
3. Elvira Kolpakova, Russia, 2:42:52
4. Marina Kurnosova, Russia, 2:45:26
5. Viktoriya Silonina, Russia, 2:45:55