7, 000 runners vie in today’s Cebu City Marathon

INTERNATIONAL  runners are expected to grab most of the spotlight in today’s  the third staging of the  Cebu City Marathon at the Cebu IT Park in Lahug.

“We are very happy to say that we have 18 nationalities joining us,” said John Pages during last Friday’s carbo-loading party for the 42-kilometer runners at Ayala Center Cebu’s The Terraces.

Runners from Germany, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Sweden, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, USA, New Zealand, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Thailand and Kenya will be joining the race.

Pages said the Kenyan participants are those to watch out for as one of them who arrived from Malaysia vowed to break the record in the 42k category.

Pages said among the noted 42k runners in today’s race are Susan Jemutai, Frederick Mathui and Benjamin Kepkazi. Samson Tuwei and Willy Rotich will compete in the 21k half marathon category.

Despite the presence of foreign bets, Filipino runners will not go home empty handed because of the newly added all-Filipino category.

The gunstart for the 42k will be at 4 a.m. while the 21k starts at 5 a.m. The 5k begins is 5:30 a.m. All participants are advised to go to the venue 30 minutes before the gunstart.

Around 7,000 runners are expected to compete in the race. A total of 1,568 will compete in the 42k category while 1,340 will run in the 21k race. The 5k category will see 4,114 participants.  /CORRESPONDENT DALE G. ROSAL