Registrations open for Al Mouj Muscat Marathon 2019

Muscat: It’s time for the residents and citizens of the Sultanate to dust off their running shoes as the registrations for the upcoming Al Mouj Muscat Marathon 2019 opened on Tuesday.
With less than eight months to go, organisers are aiming to build on the success of the record-breaking 2018 marathon that witnessed the participation of more than 6,000 athletes, with 10,000 athletes expected to take part in 2019 across six running categories — full-marathon, half-marathon, relay-marathon, 10K race, 5K Charity Fun Run and the Kids’ Run. The eighth edition of the Muscat Marathon will again see Muscat Road Runners, Oman Athletics Association and Oman Sail collaborate to achieve the new targets. The event will also have the continued support of title sponsor Al Mouj Muscat. “This year, Al Mouj Muscat Marathon was an incredible success not only due to the huge number of participants that was involved, but because the event also underlined the Sultanate’s status as a world class sports destination. We are delighted to continue our sponsorship for the third year in succession, and look forward to inspiring more individuals from Oman and beyond to take part and live a healthy lifestyle,” said Nasser Al Sheibani, CEO, Al Mouj Muscat.
The Al Mouj Muscat Marathon is also supported by the Ministry of Tourism and Tanfeedh, the government’s economic diversification initiative, which has identified the fast-growing global sports tourism sector as a key focus.
The two-day event is scheduled to kick off on January 18, 2019, with the centrepiece marathon race along with the half-marathon, relay-marathon and 10K race. The highly popular Kids’ Run and 5K Charity Fun Run will be held the following day.
The full-marathon, covering 42.195km, and half-marathon, 21.0975km, will each have four categories – an open category with a minimum age of 17, and 40-49, 50-59 and 60+ age groups.
“The 10km event will have similar age groups though the open category is open to runners aged from 13. It will also have a junior category for 13- to 19-year-olds,” said Salma Al Hashmi, Oman Sail CMO. The 5km Charity Fun Run is also open to runners aged 13 and above, while the Kids’ Fun Run will have 1, 2 and 3km courses for youngsters aged 7-8, 9-10 and 11-12 years old respectively.
“The Relay marathon event is open to teams of four to six runners in male, female and mixed groups, with the mixed teams having at least two female runners,” added Al Hashmi.
Registrations for 2019 can be made at muscatmarathon.om.