The 10th MGM Macau Eco TrailHiker was held this weekend with about 2,600 participants in 650 teams competing in three race categories including the 10km Fun Course, 20km and 30km corporate challenge.
To commemorate its tenth year, TrailHiker has expanded its efforts in going eco-friendly by conducting a series of eco action initiatives serving as the guideline for the event by following a “Think Reusable, Not Disposable” mentality. Specifically, the organizer aimed to reduce the use of plastic bottles and paper cups during the event and encouraged its 20km and 30km participants to bring their own bottles for the race.
At the water stations, paper cups were also replaced by reusable cups in a bid to strive to raise public awareness of ecological and environmental protection.
“We became aware that we needed to start doing something for the environment. […] I think that the big shift this year is that we’ve taken it from the head to the heart,” said Robert Kirby, director of Macau TrailHiker Ltd.
“We’ve got 10 initiatives. […] When they are put together, they really make a difference as it reduces our carbon footprint. […] Everything we’re doing is because we believe that it’s the right thing to do, not because we’re following a trend,” he said.
Meanwhile, beneficiaries of this year’s community event were The Cradle of Hope Association and The Salvation Army – Hong Kong and Macau Command as a support for their operational expenses.
TrailHiker held a cheque presentation of a total of MOP400,000 to these two local associations during the kick off ceremony.
“It’s to further what they do in the community. It’s a great day for Macau Eco TrailHiker. [The donations have contributed] an accumulative total of MOP3.4 million over the past 10 years,” Kirby said.
This year, the TrailHiker event was sold out within a few hours of the launch of the online registration.
Due to the continuous growth of the event, Kirby said that he hopes to turn the event into a sports festival.
“There is such a thing as a carrying capacity for the trails. What I do envisage […] is there’ll come a time in the future where we’ll have this event over the weekend,” said Kirby.
“Perhaps we’ll have the 10km and the 20km event on a Saturday and a 30km and possibly 50km on a Sunday – maybe with some sports expo as well. That’s a way to increase the participants,” he added.
Further, all the category winners this year broke the previous records with the results as follows: The winners of 10km team, 紅纖10K 隊 finished the course in 45 minutes, 10seconds, followed by 珠海卡神軍團 and Melco 新濠天地軟足天地一號.
For the 20km course, the champion was 愛華跑步-20K, finishing in 1 hour and 34 minutes, 09 seconds, and the 1st runner-up and the 2nd runner-up were RunPlus 隊名我無意見 and Top Sport B respectively.
For the 30km course, the champion was 從天而降West Face, finishing in 2 hours and 27 minutes, 21 seconds, and the 1st runner-up and the 2nd runner-up were 珠海第一跑團之為所欲為 and 山系大叔 Type R respectively.
Furthermore, to encourage more female participation for this event, the organizer continued to have the award of First All-Female team for the three categories. The winners were 越跑越FLY, Run 4 Price and 繼續五虎.
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