Dubai: The Dubai Creek Striders, one of the most popular running clubs in Dubai, put up a splendid show with their men and women runners dominating various categories at the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon last Friday.
The club, which has inspired many people to take up running, also contributed to the huge increase in the number of participants with 96 members finishing the full marathon
Malcolm Murphy, chairman and founding member of the Dubai Creek Striders, showed the way by completing his 11th Dubai Marathon at the age of 61.
However, what has made him very happy is the domination of the race by his club's runners.
Anne-Marie Hyrylainen of the Striders stood out by finishing 10th overall in the women's competition.
"We are proud of Anne-Marie's achievement. She has even beaten some of the elite women runners," Murphy told Gulf News yesterday.
Combined time
The Striders' men's team came home in a combined time of 9hrs 1min 19sec with Terry Hislop leading the pack with a time of 2hrs 56mins 14sec followed by Andy Keron in 2hrs 59mins 18sec and John Page completing in 3hrs 5mins 47secs.
The club's women runners came home in a combined time of 9hrs 7mins 30secs with individual times of Anne-Marie (2hrs 52mins 39secs), Nicola Green (3hrs 5mins 46sec) and Tracy Watson (3hrs 9mins 05secs).
"To win both the men's and women's team events is a fantastic result. Everyone in the club has trained hard for this year's Marathon, and there were some great individual performances from some of our other runners," added Murphy, who worked out a training schedule commencing from 4.30am for his runners.
"The Dubai Creek Striders has won the largest team prize, for the most runners from a club, every year for the past 12 years, and we are hopeful of bagging the prize again this year as we had 96 members finish the full marathon. It is a 50 per cent increase from last year's 63 finishers," he said.
In the age categories, Anne-Marie finished first in the category for women over 30 years of age. Nicola Green took first place in the category for women over 35 years of age and Terry Hislop topped in the over-50 male category.
Talking about her achievement, Anne-Marie said: "I couldn't have wished for a better day as I ran a personal best time. The weather was good, the course in Dubai is very fast and I felt strong during the whole race. To beat some of the word's elite runners also makes me very happy."
Hislop's achievement reflected his determination especially after overcoming an injury.
"I got injured just before Christmas and that affected my preparation, so I am happy with my time.
"However, I found the temperature a little warm towards the end of the race. The new finishing area in Media City is a great improvement, and support from the crowd at the finish line was brilliant," Hislop said.
