Posted: January 17, 2005

Athletics: Double triumph for Greatest Race Runners in Mumbai Marathon

Mumbai, 16 January 2005

The strength of the field in the Standard Chartered Greatest Race on Earth was demonstrated when GROE athletes won both the men's and women's titles at the 2005 Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, the 3rd leg of the challenge. They were joined by 53 other Greatest Race Runners and thousands more local athletes as the competition for the prize money really hotted up.

Kenyan, Julius Sugut won the men's race in 2:13:20, bringing his team New Line DK to 4th position and just six minutes and five seconds behind new leaders, PACE Sports Management for whom Penuel Osoro finished a creditable 10th overall. Previous pace setters, BMMAC (A) slipped to 11th place when Simon Biwott struggled with a time of 2:37:22. 21-year-old Ethiopian, Mulu Seboka, won the women's race in 2:35:03 and was delighted to have moved the SCB Women's Elite team to 24th position in the Main Team Challenge. The race for the USD 1 million prize pool will be wide open in Hong Kong with nine teams under eleven minutes behind the leaders and the difference between second and third place is only 13 seconds after three marathons!

In the Nations Challenge, Kenya were beaten for the first time in the Greatest Race but still look to have one hand on the title as Wesley Chelulei completed the course in 2:19:27 to give them a lead of 7 minutes and 44 seconds. His time was also good enough to promote Kenya to third place in the Main Team Challenge. Behind the Kenyans, the race is very exciting with Qatar falling out of the prize money places, being overhauled by Zimbabwe for whom Abel Chimukoko finished an excellent 14th and Zambia for whom Richard Bwalya recorded the quickest time of any national runner at 2:18:12. The UK have jumped to 5th position after Ian Fisher ran well to finish in 34th place overall, pushing host nation India down two places to sixth.

In the Individual Challenge, Martin Longuran will be hot favourite to win the title and the USD 100,000 first prize in Hong Kong as his accumulated time over Nairobi, Singapore and Mumbai of 6 hours 55 minutes is almost five minutes quicker than nearest challenger, Cleophas Rop. Rop jumped previous 2nd place man, Stephen Ndungu who was only 22 seconds behind Longuran after Singapore but now has nearly nine minutes to make up.

Seboka, was not the only female to fair well against the men in Mumbai. Thi Hoa Nguyen from Vietnam was 33rd in the GROE standings after finishing 17th in the Women's race and Anuradani Nishanka from Sri Lanka finished 39th in the GROE and 28th in the women's marathon.

Standings after Three Races: Nairobi, Singapore, Mumbai

 
Team Aggregate time Difference to Leader
MAIN TEAM CHALLENGE
 
Pace Sports Management 06:53:52
Marathon Wizzards 06:58:17 + 04:25
Kenyan National Team 06:58:30 + 04:38
 
NATIONS CHALLENGE
 
Kenya 06:58:30
Zimbabwe 07:06:14 + 07:44
Zambia 07:22:28 + 23:58
 
INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE
 
Martin Longuran 06:55:05
Cleophas Rop 07:00:53 + 04:48
Stephen Ndungu  07:04:43 + 08:48

For full results, go to www.thegreatestrace.com .

The Standard Chartered Greatest Race on Earth Marathons

Last year, about 70,000 people ran in Standard Chartered sponsored marathons in four major cities. In 2005, Standard Chartered Bank is proud to be title sponsor of marathons in six major cities across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

The marathons characterise the values and attitude that Standard Chartered believes in, and lives by everyday - a "can-do" attitude, a priority on strength of trust, willpower, stamina, and the determination to "go the distance".

This year, Standard Chartered presents The Greatest Race on Earth, a challenging virtual relay race across the Bank's four established marathons.

·         In Nairobi on 24 October 2004
·         In Singapore on 5 December 2004
·         In Mumbai on 16 January 2005
·         In Hong Kong on 27 February 2005 

3 competition categories

Main (open to all) Prize pool of USD 1 million prize pool - fastest combined time of four runners across all four events (one runner per team per race); top prize of USD 400,000; prizes to 15th place

Individual USD 100,000 Winner Takes all prize for fastest individual time across all four events

Nations Prize pool of USD 145,000 - fastest National Athletics Association-fielded team time of four runners in all four events (one runner per team per race); top prize of USD 70,000; prizes for the top three

Charity ties - including the Bank's own global initiative, 'Seeing is Believing' - means that every step raises money to help make a difference in people's lives. Henry Wanyoike, a blind distance runner and world record holder in the 10km for the visually impaired, will run in all four of the races. Standard Chartered will match public donations, up to USD 1,000 for every kilometre he runs to Seeing is Believing.

Standard Chartered - leading the way in Asia, Africa and the Middle East

Standard Chartered employs 30,000 people in over 500 locations in more than 50 countries in the Asia Pacific Region, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the United Kingdom and the Americas. It is one of the world's most international banks, with a management team comprising 70 nationalities.

Standard Chartered is listed on both the London Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and is in the top 25 FTSE-100 companies, by market capitalisation.

It serves both Consumer and Wholesale Banking customers. Consumer Banking provides credit cards, personal loans, mortgages, deposit taking and wealth management services to individuals and small to medium sized enterprises. Wholesale Banking provides corporate and institutional clients with services in trade finance, cash management, lending, security services, foreign exchange, debt capital markets and corporate finance.

Standard Chartered is well-established in growth markets and aims to be the right partner for its customers. The Bank combines deep local knowledge with global capability.

The Bank is trusted across its network for its standard of governance and its commitment to making a difference in the communities in which it operates.