11th Cebu Marathon draws record number of entries

CEBU, Philippines — A record number of  5,000-plus runners from all over the world have already registered for the 11th Cebu Marathon scheduled to be held on January 14 at the Cebu Business Park.

Cebu Executive Runners Club (CERC) President Kenneth Casquejo is elated that this year's edition has made a huge wave in terms of participants.

“More than 5,000 runners will be joining the Cebu Marathon (CM). This is the most participated edition, so far, because this is the biggest number we have,” said Casquejo.

Last year's race drew only 4,000 entries.

“We are very prepared now and we assure the runners that this would be the best hosted Cebu Marathon,” added Casquejo.

In their last count, the full marathon (42km) category has 1,950 registrants, the 21K has 2,200, the 10K has 480 and 5K has 367.

Casquejo said long distance runners from 32 countries will see action and some of them have started to arrive in the city. The rest are due next week.

Meanwhile, the CERC has given 200 free slots to the kids of Cebu City and Cebu Province as part of its commitment to help their grassroots development programs in running.

"This is part of our commitment to the grassroots program of Cebu City and Cebu Province through their respective sports commissions. We want to give back and contribute something for the development of their grassroots programs in running," said Casquejo. (FREEMAN)