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Published on November 17, 2007

The full marathon will be flagged off tomorrow from Sanamchai Road, adjacent to the Royal Grand Palace, at an unusually early time of 2 am, to avoid heat and dehydration. With such a huge participation, the Bangkok Marathon is slated to be one of the biggest in Asia.

Leading the pack of international athletes will be Ethiopian Berhanu Tesfaye, who won here last time, and Poland's Violetta Uryga, the reigning champion and record-holder in the women's category.

Ethiopian Teru Wordofa Tesfaye, Tanzanian Lucian Disdery and runners from Kenya will add to the glitz of this year's race. Leading the Thai assault are Supis Chantharat, who finished 10th last year and Sunisa Sailomyen, the top female marathoner in the Kingdom.

Also, for the first time, 80 blind runners and their volunteer guides will participate in the race.

Paralympian gold-medallist Henry Wanyoike from Kenya and his guide Joseph Kibunja have also been invited to run along with the Thai runners.

The Sunday race will comprise three events - the full 42.195km marathon and wheelchair marathon, the quarter 10.550km and 5km walk-and-fun runs.

The winners in both men's and women's marathon will get the prestigious King's Cups and a Bt300,000 prize. Others can finish with Bt150,000, Bt100,000, Bt70,000, Bt50,000, Bt30,000, Bt20,000, Bt15,000, Bt12,000 and Bt10,000 in the men's category, while the  top six in the women's category will also get cash prizes.

Cash prizes of Bt50,000 are also offered for the runners who could break the race record of 2:18.59 and 2:46.40 in men and women's category respectively.

Preechachan Wiriyanupappong

 The Nation