By Jaythaleela K
MIRI, March 19: Kenyan runners Bernard Muinde Matheka (42km Men Open), Jamin Ekai (42km Men Veteran) and Jemimah Wayua Musau (42km Women Open) secured the top spot in their respective categories at the 5th Miri Marathon here today.
Matheka won the 42km Men Open category with a time of 2:28:50, while Ekai won the 42km Men Veteran category in 2:36:08 and Musau crossed the finish line at 3:08:50 to win the 42km Women Open category.
Malaysian Lee Siok Chin finished in first place in the 42km Women Veteran category with a time of 3:29:00.
A total of 5,628 participants took part in the 5th edition of the Miri Marathon today, with 1,158 foreigners from 11 countries, while the remaining participants are from West Malaysia (534), Sabah/Labuan(556) and Sarawak (3,380).
This total is double from the previous edition.
Nations represented this year were Singapore (43); Brunei Darussalam (996); Indonesia (47); Australia (6); China (5); Kenya (28); Netherlands (4); Philippines (5); Portugal (2); UK/US(20) and South Africa (2).
The run included a 42km full marathon (Men Open/Men Veteran/Women Open/Women Veteran); a 21km half-marathon (Men Open/Men Veteran/Women Open/Women Veteran) and a 10km route (Men Open/Women Open).
The 42km marathon runners were flagged off at 1am by Deputy Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts I Datuk Sebastian Ting at 1am, while the 21km runners were flagged off at 4am, and 10km runners set off at 5.30am.
Meanwhile, Minister of Transport Sarawak Datuk Sri Lee Kim Shin urged various organisations in Miri to organise and list their national and international events to attract visitors to Miri.
“Since the pandemic is now under control, make Miri a city of events,” he said on Sunday after presenting prizes to the various winners of the 5th Miri Marathon at Taman Bulatan here.
Lee believed that hosting these types of events including sports, business, education exhibitions or even business conferences, would have a large impact on Miri City’s development. — DayakDaily
