Bridge Marathon set for record

Source from The STAR

THE Penang Bridge Marathon is set to gain entry into the Malaysia Book of Records for having the most entries in a marathon.
A total of 20,384 people have signed up for the event on Sunday, and the figure is expected to almost hit 21,000 with last-minute participation of foreign runners. Last year’s marathon attracted almost 10,000 participants.
State Tourism Development and Environment Committee chairman Teng Chang Yeow said the participants this year hailed from 50 countries, including Singapore, Thailand, India, Britain, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Germany, Kenya, Australia, China, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Ghana, Canada, Brazil and the United States.
He said 19,773 participants were local residents while 611 were from other countries.
About 38% or 7,588 of the participants were women, he added.
Teng said the event was divided into four categories – 42.195km full marathon, 22.3km half marathon, 10km quarter marathon and a10km fun run.
The half marathon attracted the most participants (8,290 runners), followed by the fun run with 8,240 runners.
“Participants are required to collect their numbers and T-shirts at Queensbay Mall from 10am to 9pm on June 22 and from 10am to 6pm on June 23,” Teng told a press conference at Komtar in Penang on Monday.
He said the Penang Bridge would be closed for the event from 2am to 10am on Sunday, and that the ferry service would operate round the clock on that day.
He said the full marathon would be flagged off in front of Universiti Sains Malaysia at 3am, followed by the half marathon at 4.30am from the same venue. The quarter marathon and fun run would be flagged off from Rescam at 5.30am.
Teng said there would also be a 3km charity run at 8.30am in which Yang di-Pertua Negri Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas, Chief Minster Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, state exco members and other VIPs would participate.
Marathon’s organising committee vice-chairman Idrus Mat Tais said RM150,000 had been raised from the charity run.
Idrus said entry for the marathon was still open to overseas runners, and he expected 300 to 400 more foreigners to sign up on Friday and Saturday.
Teng later received some sponsorship for the marathon, including 5,000 T-shirts for participants, from Yeo Hiap Seng (Trading) Sdn Bhd and 15 air tickets as lucky draw prizes from Firefly.
The tickets are for return flights from Penang to Phuket, Koh Samui, Langkawi, Kuantan, Terengganu and Kota Baru.
The marathon, jointly organised by the Malaysian Highway Authority and Penang Municipal Council, is listed as one of the 50 special events for Visit Malaysia Year 2007.
Its media sponsors are The Star, Nanyang Siang Pau and Tamil Nesan.