(MENAFN- Editorial) Registration officially opened for the event which will feature the popular 5km Fun Run and the Kids’ Run on the first day, while the second day will see the main marathon event on the opening day along with the Half-marathon and 10km races. All distances are centred on the Al Mouj Muscat waterfront community and lifestyle destination in the heart of the city, providing a striking background for the range of athletic endeavours.
Nasser Al Sheibani, CEO of Al Mouj Muscat, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be the title sponsor of this remarkable event for another year. The Muscat Marathon is a great match for our ambitions at Al Mouj Muscat to promote a healthy lifestyle for our multi-national residents and many visitors. It has become a great spectacle which has been embraced by the community as a whole.”
The event has seen a dramatic increase in participants from 135 at the first event in 2012 to over 8,000 across all events at this year’s eighth edition in January. Organisers are aiming for a further increase to over 12,000 in 2020. As part of opening registration, an “Unlock Muscat” scheme has been introduced for prospective runners around the world to discover and enjoy a host of opportunities and exclusive discounts during their stay in the Sultanate. All registered runners will have access to exclusive offers at various local hot sports around Muscat, including gyms, physiotherapists, nutritionists, coffee shops, restaurants and much more.
More exciting this year is a number of top athletes from a variety of sport disciplines joining forces as inspirational ambassadors for the event, Oman’s top goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi, sportscar racing driver Ahmad Al Harthi, Olympic showjumper Sultan Al Touqi, sprinter Barakat Al Harthi, tennis player Fatma Al Nabhani, sailor and Olympic hopeful Musab Al Hadi. They, alongside global ambassador and world record holder Paula Radcliffe, will act as role models to add to the collaborative effort by the event organisers and supporters to engage more people to get active.
Paula Radcliffe said, “I am really looking forward to coming back to Oman for the second time as ambassador for the Al Mouj Muscat Marathon. I had such an amazing time last year, visiting the beautiful country and meeting some brilliant people. I also look forward to work with the event local ambassadors to get more people experience running in Oman”.
David Graham, CEO of Oman Sail said, “We have been delighted to see the tremendous growth of the event over the past three years which has been a result of the dedicated work of many entities around Oman and the generous support of our commercial partners, Al Mouj Muscat and Port Sohar. The benefits of having an active lifestyle are very well proven and documented. It is no coincidence that 93% of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies played regular sport in their youth. Sports have far reaching benefits for individuals and society as a whole and we are really grateful to the Omani sporting icons for helping us with the mission of getting the youth active.”
The 42.195km marathon and subsidiary events are all certified by world-running organisation AIMS to conform to International Association of Athletic Federation (IAAF) standards and offer a great variety for runners.
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