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Greatest Race On Earth Athletes Break All Records
To Win Singapore Marathon
3 December 2006, Singapore - Standard Chartered's Greatest Race on Earth
(GROE) athletes Amos Mutai and Salina Kosgei, both Kenyan, today ran course
record times of 2:15:01 and 2:31:55 respectively to win the men's and
women's Singapore Marathon. The high standard of the unique relay series'
field of athletes was further shown by the top three places in both races
being filled by GROE runners.
The victory for Kosgei, who was accompanied to Singapore and supported by
her family, maintains her team Cyclone's position as leaders of the GROE
Women's Team Challenge. They now have a cumulative time of 5:04:41, putting
them over nine minutes ahead of their nearest rivals Grazy Girls, with both
the first leg in Nairobi and now the second leg in Singapore complete.
Mutai's spirited run for Marathon Centre Kericho has lifted his team's
position from 14th in the GROE Main Team Challenge to lead position.
Previous leaders Run for Fun team dropped to 20th position, despite being
represented by one of the pre-marathon favourites Joseph Ngolepus.
The Standard Chartered GROE, with a total prize pool of US$1.5 million, is
a team relay of four challenging marathons in Nairobi, Singapore, Mumbai
and Hong Kong. The field of elite athletes and emerging talent sped away
from the start-line at 6am along the Esplanade Drive, all taking on
Singapore's heat and humidity.
The 2006/07 GROE Series sees participation from over 30 countries, the
focus of which is the Nations Challenge. Zimbabwe's Oliver Kandiero shone
in Singapore, as he stormed through the course to finish with a time of
2:21:23. This puts them in third place in the Nations Challenge, closing
the gap to Kenya in second to just half a minute. Uganda remain first
thanks to a strong run by Ugandan Joeseph Nsubuga with a time of 2:23:56,
leading the chase for the coveted GROE Gold Baton trophy at the halfway
stage.
The regional competitions within the Nations Challenge are poised for a
highly competitive second half to the competition after the first two
marathons.
India still leads the South Asia region with national representative Ajeet
Sing completing the course in 2:33:23. Close rivals Sri Lanka, only 1
minute and 13 seconds behind, are in second, with Pakistan in third spot.
A tremendous marathon by Todd Ingraham in a time of 2:35:14 has taken
Australia to lead position in the Oceania & Europe region. Previous
leaders Ireland drops a place to second but are only 1 minute 20 seconds
behind. Finland has moved up into third place.
In the South East Asia region, Indonesia leads Thailand by a massive 15
minutes, with Vietnam in third place.
In the North East Asia region, Taiwan maintains their lead over South Korea
by a margin of 20 minutes, while the Hong Kong team are in third place, a
further 28 minutes behind.
In the Americas region, a truly brilliant race by Juan Escalante, who
trains at altitude, finished for Mexico in a time 2:31:51, taking them
above Argentina. The gap between the two is 34 minutes 10 seconds.
In another increase on last year's turn-out, it was estimated that nearly
28,000 runners participated in the Singapore Marathon event.
Visit www.thegreatestrace.com for comprehensive media materials such as
runner profiles, features, fact file, photo gallery and results.
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