Siblings win Macau Marathon, break course records

Felix Kiptoo Kirwa pictured during the race

Felix and Eunice Kirwa were the great winners for the 2017 edition of the Macau International Marathon.

The brother and sister won in both male and female categories respectively, running the 42.195km in 2:10:01 and 2:29:12, with both siblings also achieving record breaking the records for each category.

Felix Kiptoo Kirwa, in this way, won not only the title and the prize money for the winner but also the bonus (for record breaker), scoring a record-high prize of USD62,000. Joseph Kyengo Munywoki and Henry Sang, both from Kenya, ran the distance in 2:13:18 and 2:13:48, attaining the second and third positions respectively.

In the women’s category, Bahrain athlete Eunice Jepkirui Kirwa also repeated the achievement of her brother Felix and took both the win and the record- breaking bonus; a prize-money total of USD62,000.
In second place of the women’s category was Ukraine’s Shafar Oleksandra, followed by Rodah Jepkorir Ranui of Kenya with the times of 2:33:06 and 2:33:41 respectively.

The 36th edition of the international event gathered about 12,000 participants from over 50 countries and regions in different categories.

Besides the major titles attributed to the Kenyan Felix Kirwa and his sister Eunice, who was representing Bahrain, the event also attributes special awards for the best local runners, which was awarded to Chan Chong Ip and Hoi Long, in the male and female category respectively.

Eunice Kirwa crosses the line

This sporting event has been held annually at the end of the year and continues to gather a lot of interest, resulting in the organizers to constantly extend the number of entry-slots available for the running route. The route now passes through the A-Ma Temple, Nobre de Carvalho and Sai Van Bridge with a track through the Taipa, Cotai and Macau peninsula areas, totaling the official distance of 42.195 km.

Together with the event there are also two other races, the Half Marathon distance and a Mini Marathon.

For the Half Marathon distance, the overall winner in the male category was another Kenyan, Josphat Menjo and in the female group, the winner was Portugal’s Doroteia Alves Peixoto, who repeated her 2016 victory.
The best among the local athletes for the half-distance event was Iao Kuan Un and Wu Yangyang, respectively in the male and female groups.

As for the special prize for the oldest athlete of the year, it was awarded to Kwan Kam Tong of Hong Kong; the 80 year-old was the oldest athlete running the Marathon distance finishing within the settled maximum time.

As in previous editions, marathon legend and Olympic champion Rosa Mota participated in the event.  RM