PHUKET: Mario Maglinao, 31, from the Philippines, won the tenth Laguna Phuket International Marathon today.
The annual running festival took to the island's roads with more
than 5700 entrants of all ages and abilities from 43 countries competing on a variety of distance courses in an atmosphere of community fun and charity fund-raising.
Maglinao finished the 42km marathon in a time of 02: 55:35.
His winning trophy represented the third annual partnership with a sister race - the Italian 10km Igrani Run - in an initiative by Laguna's sponsor, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), which also sponsors the Igrani Run.
''I ran the marathon since 2005 in the Philippines and I had run over 40 marathons so far,'' said Maglinao,
''I had a good start today but I tried to save my energy during the first half because I know the weather is going to be very hot later in the race,'' he said.
''I picked up in the second half and started my lead after the 21st Km..
''This is my first time to LPIM and I love it. I'm definitely coming back to defend my title next year.
''For those of you who are training to be a marathoner, keep training and train hard.
''It will bring success to your run. See you at next year's race.''
The women's 42km race was won by Satomi Oka, 48, of Japan in 03:43:17.
In the half marathon, Kohichiro Yamanaka, 34, from Japan in 01:14:38 beat last year's record of 01:15:55.
The women's half-marathon was won by Christabel Martes, 36, of
the Philippines, in 01:25:12, a time that also beats last year's record of 01:26:19.
The 10.5km race saw Daniel Vegan, 22, from Australia win in 0:39:23 and Siraphat Budcheen, 44, from Thailand, was winner in the women's category in 0:46:22.
The annual running festival took to the island's roads with more
than 5700 entrants of all ages and abilities from 43 countries competing on a variety of distance courses in an atmosphere of community fun and charity fund-raising.
Maglinao finished the 42km marathon in a time of 02: 55:35.
His winning trophy represented the third annual partnership with a sister race - the Italian 10km Igrani Run - in an initiative by Laguna's sponsor, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), which also sponsors the Igrani Run.
''I ran the marathon since 2005 in the Philippines and I had run over 40 marathons so far,'' said Maglinao,
''I had a good start today but I tried to save my energy during the first half because I know the weather is going to be very hot later in the race,'' he said.
''I picked up in the second half and started my lead after the 21st Km..
''This is my first time to LPIM and I love it. I'm definitely coming back to defend my title next year.
''For those of you who are training to be a marathoner, keep training and train hard.
''It will bring success to your run. See you at next year's race.''
The women's 42km race was won by Satomi Oka, 48, of Japan in 03:43:17.
In the half marathon, Kohichiro Yamanaka, 34, from Japan in 01:14:38 beat last year's record of 01:15:55.
The women's half-marathon was won by Christabel Martes, 36, of
the Philippines, in 01:25:12, a time that also beats last year's record of 01:26:19.
The 10.5km race saw Daniel Vegan, 22, from Australia win in 0:39:23 and Siraphat Budcheen, 44, from Thailand, was winner in the women's category in 0:46:22.
Dear ED, like you know numbers are my job... 5700 entrants for 2.500 baht ticket means 14.250.000, but really was close to 18 millions (tickets sold were more and if late more expensive). So, I'm really corious to understand this atmosphere of community fun and charity fund-raising... Maybe for someone, but for few it was a great business opportunity , since it was not even made the effort to invite some well know professional athlete. (no Kenyan ranks and the winner was more than 50 minutes far from the WR).
Posted by dave on June 8, 2015 01:31
Editor Comment:
Don't be too harsh. I suspect you'll find the cost wasn't the same for the shorter events and even less for team events. In other words, dave, your back-of-the-envelope calculations are probably well wide of the mark. There is no suggestion that these events are charity events. I did note, however, that no juvenile elephant featured in this year's winning line photos.