Abebe, Skah to arrive here today
JAKARTA (JP): Defending champion Addis Abebe of Kenya and Olympic gold medalist Khalid Skah of Morroco are slated to arrive here this evening for the Bob Hasan 10-kilometer road race here on Sunday.
Other well known participants of the US$250,000 annual event, American Shannon Butler and compatriot Ann Marie Letko, will land at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport this morning.
Abebe, who clocked the world's best time of 27 minutes and 40 seconds last year, and Skah, the Olympic's 10,000-meter track gold medalist, are vying for the whopping bonus of $500,000 set aside by the organizers. Abebe earned the enormous sum of money for his new world record to add to his winner's $25,000 check.
China's rising stars Wang Jungxia, the 10,000m and 3,000m world record holder, Qu Yunxia, 1,500m world record holder and the 3,000m world champion, and the 3,000m world junior record setter Ma Ningning will highlight the women's division. Ma's Army squad is expected to arrive on Friday.
Other foreign runners who have confirmed their entries are Garry Staines of England and P. Jayanthi of Malaysia. The 10km loop course will serve as the warm-up meet for the international marathon in London a week later.
Chairman of the committee B. Chaidir said yesterday at least 7,500 runners, most of them students, would join the race which was dubbed the world's richest run.
"We will limit the number of entrants to 10,000," Chaidir said.
Indonesia will bank on Asia Marathon runner-up Eduardus Nabunome, Ethel Hudson, Suyono and Nuraimin in the men's category and Suryati and Ruliyati in the women's event.
"We expect to feature more runners who join training camps in their respective province," Chaidir added. "We are looking forward to hearing their confirmation from their coaches."
The race was inaugurated in Bali in 1987 and was staged there three times before being moved to the vicinity of the ancient Buddhist temple Borobudur for the next three years. Jakarta has been playing host to the event since last year. (amd)