also excelling in the marathon to take first place with charles settling for second and how have germany coming in third. third. in the men s germany s patrick long it was trailing until the final running stage that s also perhaps because he had been stung by a jellyfish just prior to the competition and wasn t sure if he could compete but compete he did and how finally making his mark late on and beating the previous race record by almost nine minutes he then dropped to his knees to propose to his girlfriend. along also became the first athlete in history to finish the competition in under eight hours and just a reminder of the top story we re following for you right now people in the german state of bavaria are voting in a pivotal state election that could further destabilize chancellor angela merkel s fragile coalition government polls show her conservative allies the c.s.u. are likely to lose their absolute majority. you re watching news from berlin