Thursday 19 / September / 2024
Muscat: Delighted with the ‘huge response’, the Muscat Road Runners (MRR) are gearing up to organise ‘a bigger and more successful’ Muscat Marathon this weekend.
The fifth edition of Marathon, which forms part of the annual Muscat Festival, is scheduled for Friday.
According to MRR chairman Ahmed Al Malki, this year’s event received overwhelming response from within the Sultanate and from outside.
Speaking to Times Sport, Ahmed Al Malki said: “Our Muscat Marathon has been growing in stature since we have started organising it five years ago.”
“As one of the main sporting events of Muscat Festival it has been gradually growing and gaining in popularity,” he said.
“The growing popularity can be gauged from the number of entries we have been receiving over the years. In fact, the numbers have been increasing since we hosted our first Marathon five years ago.”
“For example this year the Marathon is ‘sold out’. Requests for entries have been pouring in. We have already accepted 600 entries, which is 20 percent more than last year,” he said while revealing that last year’s Marathon had attracted 500 entries.
“We have received entries from over 54 nationalities from within Oman and from outside,” he added.
While most of them are from Oman and the neighbouring countries as well as the Omanis loving abroad, a group of runners from Australia will be flying in to the Sultanate to take part in the Muscat Marathon.
Latest technology
The MRR chief attributed the huge response to his team’s organisational ability and the event’s success.
“It’s quite obvious that athletes want to take part in a successful event. And they like the way we run the event. That’s the reason we have been receiving tremendous response,” a delighted Al Malki said.
“It will be no different this year too. In fact, we are gearing up to organise a bigger and better event,” he said.
“We will also be using the latest technology... like individual time record chips. There will be online results,” he said.
Three categories
Giving further details of the Marathon, he said: “There will be three categories: 10km run, Half Marathon and Marathon.”
This year's event will be flagged off at Hotel InterContinental with the participants in the full Marathon starting at 6 a.m. The Half Marathon will begin at 7 a.m., while the 10km run will start an hour later at 8 a.m.
Like Muscat Festival and its accompanying events, Muscat Marathon is also aimed at showcasing the beauty of the capital city. The events route is designed in such a way the participants pass through some of the most picturesque locations of Muscat.
After the flag off at InterContinental, the participants will be passing through Qurm Corniche, Royal Opera House, the Ministries area and Grand Hyatt before finishing at InterContinental, depending on the categories they are taking part in.
