Dubai: With less than three months to go, local and international runners of all abilities are signing up for the biggest mass participation event in the Middle East — the 2017 Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon — which gets underway on Friday, January 20.
Held under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council, and staged under the aegis of the Dubai Sports Council, the marathon is expected to see more than 30,000 runners compete across the full marathon distance 42.195km, the popular 10km event and the 4km fun run.
The 2017 event will be the 13th successive year with Standard Chartered Bank as title sponsor, with the bank having recently confirmed its support of the race for another four years.
“We are proud and delighted to have Standard Chartered as title sponsor as we continue with the progression and international standing of the Dubai Marathon,” said event director Peter Connerton.
“During our partnership with the bank — and thanks to the unwavering support of the Government of Dubai and the Dubai Sports Council — the Dubai Marathon has grown into one of the leading long distance events on the IAAF calendar. Today it is not only the richest marathon in the world [$200,000 or Dh734,629 in prize money per men’s and women’s winner] but also one of the fastest [men’s record 2:04.23, women’s 2:19.31] attracting world-class runners seeking personal bests and course records.”
As well as its status as an IAAF Gold Label race attracting the cream of world-class long distance runners, the marathon is also renowned as one of the key dates on the calendar for the UAE’s growing number of amateur runners. Already numbers are up on previous years with the registration process well underway through the event’s official website www.dubaimarathon.org.
“Having so many people gather in one place means we rely a great deal on the co-operation of government bodies such as the Dubai Police and the RTA and we will again be having regular meetings in order to make the event as trouble-free as possible both for runners and Dubai residents alike,” added Connerton.
In the 2016 event held nine months ago, Ethiopians dominated the podium with Tesfaye Abera winning the men’s race in a time of 2h:04:04 — the second fastest in the history of the event — while victory in the women’s race went to TIrfi Tsegaye who struck gold for the second time in four years in a time of 2h:19:41, the third fastest time in the history of the race.
