Marathoners from thirty eight countries in the fray
All arrangements have been finalized to conduct the 15th Colombo Marathon organised Lanka Sportreizen and sponsored by Sri Lankan Airlines scheduled to be held on October 4th. This was revealed by Deepal V. Perera, Manager Media Development, Sri Lankan Airlines at a press briefing held at the Sri Lanka Airlines auditorium in Cololmbo recently.
Thilak Weerasinghe, Chairman LSR, Deepal V. Perera, Manager Media Development, SriLankan Airlines and Pradeep Durairaj, Manager, Promotions and Brand Management SriLankan Airlines briefing the media.
Speaking further he said that over 6500 marathoners representing 38 countries will be in the fray which shows the massive increase of participants being involved since it began 15 years ago. Thi;ak Weerasinghe, Chairman of Lanka Sportreizen addressing the media said that the 41.195 kilometres even is die to be flagged off opposite the Independence in Colombo and will culminate at Negombo Beach Park.
The marathon will take through Borella, Dematagoda, Peliyagoda to Wattala from where it will divert towards Pamunugama along the Hamilton Canal stretch road, Talahena, Pitipala, Doowa and to the final destination in Negombo. The marathon will be run in four segments which will be the five kilometre and ten kilometer fun events, the half marathon (21km) and the main event. Most of the previous events have been dominated by the Kenyan runners but this time they would face stiff opposition due to the fact of so many athletes taking part.
Weerasinghe elaborating and speaking of how the Colombo Marathon started, ‘I can recollect that only 326 participants took part and today it has gone a long way.’ The specialty of this event is that it is recognised by the world body the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) and the Association of International Marathoners and Distance Races (AIMS) which for us is a huge achievement.
Top notch marathoners from Kenya, Japan, India, China, German and Ethopia to name a few will in the fray where stake money of Rs. 2.5 million is on offer and a total sum of Rs 23 million to conduct this prestigious event which will run under international regulations.
Pradeep Durairaj, Manager, Promotions and Brand Management Sri Lankan Airlines briefing the media said that we are proud to be involved with this prestigious event which we have doing since its inception’. Speaking further he stressed that this is the only international event that we are sponsoring this year as it involves so many countries and is one of the best ways to promote our country.
He added that as mentioned earlier the Colombo Marathon sanctioned by the IAAF has drawn immense interest from marathoners around the world and if any new records are established this will be recognised worldwide which is a great achievement by the organisers involved to put Sri Lanka on the world map.