Athletics: Almouj Muscat Marathon a great success

Muscat: Oman’s perfect winter climate gave the 1,300 runners of the Almouj Muscat Marathon, organised by Oman Sail and the Muscat Road Runners, a performance boost with acclaim for the route, improved finish times and large crowds pointing to a successful event and a strong future.
Setting out from Almouj, Oman’s leading lifestyle destination, last Friday for the sixth edition of the Muscat Marathon, the runners enjoyed early morning cool conditions to give their races a brisk start and Belgian athlete Pierre Breuer maintained his rapid pace through to the end posting a time of 02:42:51, eight minutes faster than the winning marathon time in 2016.
Delighted with his result, Breuer praised the event: “It was a really good race, the conditions were perfect for a personal best!”
Omani runner Amer Al Amri finished in second place while 2016 winner of the women’s marathon Asti Parker defended her 2016 title with a time of 03:23:46.
Another home-grown runner Abdullah Al Qarini won the men’s half marathon with Birgit Schulz taking the women’s medal and Yunos Abdullah Al Jabri, also from Oman knocked a full five minutes off last year’s 10km time with Maria Markovicova the winner of the women’s event.
With a spread of 74 nationalities taking part in the race, the Almouj Muscat Marathon proved to be an important event for promoting the country, said Maitha Al Mahrouqi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Chairwoman of Oman Sail, who was on hand to present trophies to the winners.
“An event like this where we have participation from Oman and the GCC region is very important for tourism. We hope in the coming years it will be even bigger,” she said.
David Graham, CEO of Oman Sail, joint organiser of the event, said it had been a great success. “Muscat is a fantastic place for a marathon especially at this time of year with perfect conditions for runners,” he said.
“And the route was really interesting running along the edge of the ocean and through the golf course with its trees and lush grass. We had a record 1,300 people participating across the three events and we have big ambitions for the race in the future. The Government of Oman have been fully supportive and have confirmed their future support, our sponsors have already confirmed for 2018, and the working relationship between Oman Sail and Muscat Road Runners is extremely complimentary.”