The second Summit Water CamSur Marathon fires off Sunday (Sept. 25) at the CamSur Water Sports Complex in Pili, Camarines Sur with the organizers confident of assembling a record field of 20,000, including the country’s leading mid-and long-distance runners and rising stars, in the five-category event held as a qualifier for the Boston Marathon.
“Now Filipino runners no longer need to race abroad just to qualify for the Boston Marathon because our very own Camsur Marathon will be a qualifying race to one of the world’s famous running events,” said Camarines Sur Gov. L-Ray Villafuerte in yesterday’s PSA forum at the Shakey’s UN Ave. in Manila.
The event, the only IAAF- and AIMS-sanctioned local marathon, drew 17,000 participants in its inaugural staging last year, including elite runners from Kenya and Ethiopia plus a slew of local celebrities.
Joining Villafuerte in the session was race director Rio dela Cruz, who confirmed that the Camsur Marathon is the only accredited race course in the country by both the International Association of Athletics Federation and Association of International Marathons and Distance Races.
“This is the major reason why Sunday’s race became a qualifying run for the Boston Marathon,” said Dela Cruz, who himself had to race in the Fresno Marathon in California, another qualifying race, this year before he could compete in the prestigious Boston run.
He added that any Filipino marathoner 34 years old and below who completes the Camsur Marathon in three hours and 10 minutes will earn a ticket to the Boston Marathon scheduled in April 2012.
Villafuerte, whose untiring promotional efforts have made his province arguably the country’s sports tourism capital, added that he has set aside the same attractive cash prizes for the country’s local elite runners who will see action in the event.
“For Filipino elite marathoners, the champion will receive P125,00, runner-up P90,000 and third placer P50,000 in both men’s and women’s divisions of the full marathon, which are the same cash prizes for the overall winners of the Camsur Marathon,” Villafurte said.
Cresenciano and Elmer Sabal, Wenlie Maulas, Jerald De Asis, Alquin Bolivar, Jessie Ano and Ailene Tolentino lead the elite roster of runners vying in the centerpiece 42k race while heading the celebrity cast are Will Devaugn, Rovilson Fernandez, Gem Padilla and Nick Thomas, who will be competing in the 21k run, Michelle Van Ruyven in the 10k and Wendy Valdez and Patty Betita in 5k.
Other backers of the event are 100Plus, Smart, Alaska, Timex, Pioneer Insurance with The Philippine STAR and TV-5 as media partners and Runnr and ROX as registration partners.
This year, the centerpiece 42k is expected to lure the country’s top runners and members of the national pool in a real test of strength and endurance. Other events on tap are the 21k, 10k, 5k and 3k.
The CamSur run is also a race to a green Philippines as it is held to raise funds for the Elverde Movement with 12 million trees targeted to be planted in 2012.
There will be three starting lines with the 42k run set at Convention Center of the CamSur Water Complex with assembly at 3 a.m. with the race proper at 4 a.m.
The 21k event will be fired off at Sagrade while the three other races to start at the Freedom Stadium with the finish line for all events at the CWC Convention Center.
“For every runner that will compete in our marathon, we are committed to plant 10 trees and if we attract 20,000 runners then that will be 200,000 trees. We plan to plant 12 million trees until 2012 and so far we have three million,” he said.
