2007-03-02
INTERNATIONAL RUNNERS ARRIVE FOR
STANDARD CHARTERED HONG KONG MARATHON 2007

[Hong Kong, 2nd March 2007]: Confirming its growing status on the international marathon calendar, nearly 2,000 elite runners from 60 countries are preparing to take part in the annual Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. Some of the world's top marathon athletes headlining this year's field joined today's Standard Chartered Marathon 2007 Meet the Athletes Press Conference at the Hotel Miramar in Kowloon.

The elite contingent of international runners were welcomed today by Peter Sullivan, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited, Alex Moh, President of the Hong Kong Amateur Athletics Association (HKAAA) and William Ko, Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the Standard Chartered Marathon 2007.

Among the stars participating in this year's Standard Chartered Marathon are the ever-present field of Kenyan runners including Chumba Patrick Kimeli from Team Akaki, Henry Serem Kipkorir from Team Rosa e associate 1, Moses Arusei from PACE Sports Management and Steven Loruo Kamar from Kericho. This year's women's field is led by China's Liu Min, winner of the 2001 Beijing International Marathon.

At today's press conference, Peter Sullivan commented on the strength of this year's field of runners saying, "With the heavyweights assembled for 2007, the HKAAA and Standard Chartered Bank are anticipating the best and most competitive Hong Kong Marathon in the 11 years of our title sponsorship."

"With the Hong Kong Marathon again serving as the finale of the Standard Chartered Greatest Race on Earth, local marathon enthusiasts can look forward to one of the largest and most experienced fields of top runners gracing the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday. The large number of elite international runners taking part will help further raise the profile of the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon as the premier marathon event in Asia."

For the third consecutive year, the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon is doubling as the grand finale of this year's Standard Chartered Greatest Race On Earth (GROE) international marathon series. The GROE features professional and national teams vying for a share of the USD1.5 million prize purse on offer to the top overall times across four Standard Chartered marathons in Nairobi, Singapore, Mumbai and Hong Kong. The team with the fastest combined time for the four marathons will win USD400,000 while a total prize pool of USD845,000 will be shared by the top 5 fastest teams overall.

Unsurprisingly, the Kenyans are the top contenders for glory at the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon 2007, particularly Chumba Patrick Kimeli and Henry Serem Kipkorir. Kimeli is the only runner in this year's field with a personal best time below 2:10 (2.09.45) and won two marathons in 2005 including the Taichung Marathon in Taiwan and the Mont St. Michel Marathon in France. But Kimeli will be running for more than just personal pride in Hong Kong as he is also serving as the anchor runner for Team Akaki team in the Greatest Race on Earth 2007. Currently in a tight battle for third place, Kimeli is focused heading into the Hong Kong Marathon saying, "Our participation in GROE adds a lot of responsibility because I am the last runner of the team and cannot afford to make any mistakes. My goal in Hong Kong is to maintain our 3rd place in this year's Greatest Race on Earth."

Kipkorir is a close second to Kimeli in this year's field with a personal best time just seconds off Kimeli's pace at 2.10.07. Kipkorir set his personal best time in the Eindhoven Marathon in 2003 and has since recorded several top finishes including a 2nd placed result at the Padova Marathon in Italy in 2006, fourth placed at the Marathon of Italy 2006 and 2nd place in the Las Vegas Marathon 2005.

Another contender is Moses Arusei of PACE Sports Management. Arusei established his
personal best time more recently than any other competitor, achieving 2.10.32 in the 2006 Frankfurt Marathon taking 2nd place overall. His other notable performances include winning the Alexander the Great Marathon in Greece in 2006 and the Dresden Marathon 2005.

In the ladies field, renowned Chinese national team runner Liu Min is marking her first ever appearance at the Hong Kong Marathon. The 25-year old Liu won the Beijing International Marathon cum 9th All China Games gold medal in 2001, setting her personal best time of 2.23.37 along the way. That mark was strong enough to break the National Best Time for a Chinese woman in the marathon set by Wang Junxia (the 1996 gold medallist in Atlanta). Liu also represented China in the 2002 Busan Asian Games marathon.

While these elite runners will be one of the natural focuses of the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, much attention will also be paid to the race outcome in the Standard Chartered Nations Challenge. Entering Hong Kong, the top three teams in this years Nations Challenge are Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda. The winner of the Nations Challenge will win an extra prize purse of USD50, 000.

Leading the charge for their respective teams are Phillip Bandawe from Zimbabwe (personal best time: 2.15.47) who took 5th place in last year's Hong Kong Marathon with a time of 2.18.08 and who edged out his compatriot Michael Ngaseke to win the Stockholm Marathon 2006 with a time of 2.17.01, nearly three minutes ahead of the field.

Leading Kenya's Nations Challenge attempt is Edward Kiprotich Muge whose personal best time in the marathon is 2.18.00. Other top runners representing their nations include Chien Wen Chiang from Taiwan, who came third in the 2004 Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon (personal best time: 2.18.14), and Jeppe Spachmo Fars?ht from Denmark (personal best: 2.22.37).

Alongside these elite international marathon runners competing for glory in Hong Kong is visually-impaired runner Henry Wanyoike and his guide Joseph Kibunja, who return for a fourth consecutive year to the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. Henry is the global ambassador for the Standard Chartered Seeing is Believing Campaign aiming of making a difference to the lives of 10 million people by World Sight Day 2010. The programme will be delivered through a range of social, medical and community based projects focusing on prevention as well as intervention.

It was also announced today that the Honourable Donald Tsang, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China will be the officiating guest at the Starting Ceremony for the Full Marathon.

About the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon 2007
The Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon 2007 will be held on Sunday, 4 March 2007. The Marathon is Hong Kong's largest participatory sporting competition and has set another participation record this year with over 43,000 registered runners.

To ensure the ideal running conditions, the Standard Chartered Marathon 2007 is instituting new starting procedures based on time limits declared by all participants on their entry forms. The first 10km race start (for Junior, Senior and Master 1 & 2 categories) will be at 5:30am for runners who expect to finish within 1:10:00 of starting. The second 10km race start will be at 5:50 am for runners with time limits from 1:10:01 to 1:25:00. And the third 10km race start will be at 7:05am for time limits over 1:25:01 while the Half Marathon start will be at 6:10am. The Standard Chartered Marathon 2007 proper will begin at 7:40am.

Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited is in its 11th year of title sponsorship to the Hong Kong Marathon. Additional sponsors and supporting parties include: New Balance Athletic Shoes (Hong Kong) Limited, Hotel Miramar Hong Kong, Watsons Water, Citizen Watches (HK) Limited, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Information Services Department, Western Harbour Tunnel Co. Ltd and Tsing Ma Management Limited.