Over 1,000 runners take on Muscat Marathon

Sport360 staff 14:13 29/01/2017
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  • Now in its sixth year, the race is one of the fastest growing and beautiful events in the Middle East, starting and ending its route at Al Mouj Muscat, a thriving waterfront community and lifestyle destination that inspired the runners’ first steps on their journey and greeted them with quiet splendor at the finish line.

    Born in 2012 with 135 competitors, the marathon has quickly grown in awareness and stature with an 862% increase in participants since the inaugural race. Setting out from Al Mouj Muscat, Oman’s leading lifestyle destination, the runners enjoyed cool conditions to give their races a brisk start and Belgian athlete Pierre Breuer maintained his rapid pace through to the end posting a time of 02:42:51, eight minutes faster than the winning marathon time in 2016.

    Omani runner Amer Al Amri finished in second place while 2016 winner of the women’s marathon Asta Parker defended her 2016 title with a time of 03:23:46. Another home-grown runner Abdullah Al Qarini won the men’s half marathon with Birgit Schulz taking the women’s medal and Yunos Abdullah Al Jabri, also from Oman knocked a full five minutes off last year’s 10km time with Maria Markovicova the winner of the women’s event.

    When asked about the development of Muscat as a unique destination for sports tourism Nasser bin Masoud Al Sheibani, CEO of the Marathon’s title sponsor Al Mouj Muscat, said: “With its warm and inviting culture and amazingly diverse landscape, there is no better place to complete a first marathon than right here in Muscat, Oman.

    “At Al Mouj Muscat we aim to offer outstanding lifestyle and leisure experiences, but more importantly we aim to improve the experiences of all those who come to the city. We’re delighted to support an event which mirrors Oman’s unique culture and genuine heritage and displays its unmatched beauty to the world. Congratulations to all the participants.”

    The annual Al Mouj Muscat Marathon is organized by Oman Sail and supported by Muscat Road Runners and features a full marathon, half marathon and 10 km run. A number of pioneering organisations also joined forces to maximise the potential of the event including Oman Air, BP Oman, Muscat Festival, Horizon Fitness, Tanuf and Strabag. For more information and to get involved, please visit http://muscatmarathon.om/.

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