Kenya athletes dominate in record-breaking year

As in last year’s event, the 2024 Sands China Macau International 10K run saw indisputable dominance from both male and female Kenyan athletes who completed the Macau route in record times.

David Bett, with a record-breaking time of 29 minutes and 2 seconds, took the win, shaving 14 seconds off the time of last year’s Kenyan winner, Edwin Cheruiyot Soi.

Bett led an armada of six Kenyans in the first six positions, with second place being taken by Mathew Samperu, who finished second last year.

Third at the finish line was Donikati Oliva Komon.

The first non-Kenyan athlete was Tse Chun Yin from Hong Kong, finishing seventh overall with a time of 32 minutes and 27 seconds.

The best local athlete was Wang Kun in ninth position, ahead of invited Chinese athlete Ba Xian Wei.

In the female group, another record fell to Kenyan Betty Sigei, who completed the 10 kilometers in 33 minutes and 53 seconds.

As in the male group, the podium was all Kenyan, with Lucy Ndambuki and Ziporah Wanjiru Kingori finishing immediately after Sigei. In fourth was Addisalem Belay Tegegn from Ethiopia, the first of the non-Kenyan runners.

Hoi Long was, yet again, the fastest woman from Macau, completing the course in 38 minutes and 12 seconds.

With the prize money the same as previous events, Bett and Sigei took home USD25,000 (over MOP200,000) each in both the overall wins on male and female groups as well as the special (USD10,000 = MOP80,500) prize for breaking of the course record.

In the shorter race (5k Fun Run), victory went to Hong Lok Chi from Macau in the male group (18 minutes, 17 seconds) and Cheng Ka I, also from Macau, in the female group (21 minutes, 6 seconds).

Local athletes filled the Fun Run podium.

Macau’s top runner aims to prepare well for National Games

Top classified in the male group, Wang said after the run that he aims to prepare well over this year to be in the best form possible during China’s National Games in 2025, of which Macau is a co-organizer.

Wang said he is planning to take a spot to run in the marathon event of these games.

ID wants to expand 10K in scale

The president of the Sports Bureau (ID), Pun Weng Kun, said the Bureau is interested in expanding the scale of the 10K event to allow more runners to participate. He was speaking to the Chinese channel of TDM Radio on the sidelines of the prize awarding ceremony.

This year, about 9,000 runners from 45 countries and regions participated in the event, out of 10,000 registration places.

With the added interest of the international runners participating and also considering there are always several dropouts on the day of the event, Pun said that the ID is planning to potentially allocate more slots (particularly on the 10K) to international athletes to create added interest and more competitiveness.

He also said there might be conditions to further increase the number of registrations for local runners.