The men’s marathon Lawrence Kiptoo Saina was first to cross the finish tape in front of Central Pattaya Beach in a time of 2:21:03, exactly 3 minutes ahead of second placed Mohammed Abduh Bakhet from Qatar who had a titanic battle for the runner-up spot with Teruto Ozaki of Japan, just pipping the far east Asian athlete on the line.

Kiptoo was the first runner to break away from the chasing field after 30 kilometres, before crossing the finish line of the gruelling race in front of the Central Festival Pattaya Beach Department Store. He clocked the fastest time of two hours, 21.03 minutes to take home Bt200,000.

Qatari Mohammed Abduh Bakhet finished a close second in two hours, 23.03 minutes to pocket Bt75,000, with Japanese Teruto Ozaki in close third place just 0.01 second behind to claim Bt50,000.

A Kenyan repeated the feat in the women’s Open event. However, the 20-year-old Euzaeth Jeruiyoj Chemweno had a hard-fought duel with Japanese Noriko Higuchi. A last-ditch attempt saw the Kenyan step past the finish line first, and 23rd place overall, in two hours, 44.04 minutes to take the top prize of Bt200,000. Higuchi finished in close second, just 0.01 second behind to collect Bt75,000. Chinese Jiang Xiaoli came in third place in 2:52.20 hours to claim Bt50,000.

Natthaya Thanaronnawat was the first Thai woman over the finish line. She clocked 2:53.31 to take home Bt70,000 plus the King’s Cup. In the women’s event, Japanese Noriko Higuchi, who finished second place overall in the women’s Open, stole the limelight after clocking 2:44.05 to capture the crown. Chinese Jiang Xiaoli and Vietnamese Pham Thi Binh were second and third in 2:52.20 and 2:53.05 respectively.

More than 50,000 runners took part in this year’s Pattaya Marathon, which featured five events consisting of the full 42.195km marathon and wheelchair marathon, 21.10km half-marathon, 10.55km quarter-marathon and 5km walk and run for students.

Sources: nationmultimedia.com, pattayamail.com, tat.or.th

The Pattaya International Marathon is one of the most famous marathons in Thailand that is organized yearly. Every year, there are many runners participating from various countries. In all, there are three races ; the full marathon (42 Km), the half marathon (21 Km) and the quarter marathon (10 Km).

Time to start :
Wheel Chair Group Starting at 04.20 a.m.
Marathon Starting at 04.30 a.m.
Half Marathon Starting at 05.00 a.m.
Quarter Marathon Starting at 05.30 a.m.
Student Starting at 06.00 a.m.

More information: pattaya-marathon.com

But the 16-nation meeting was aborted Saturday when anti-government protesters broke through cordons of troops and riot police forcing presidents, prime ministers and a monarch to be evacuated by helicopter from the Royal Cliff Beach Resort’s rooftop.

More than 1,000 demonstrators broke through a wall of unarmed soldiers, smashed through the convention center’s glass doors and ran through the building, blowing horns, waving Thai flags and shouting demands for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to resign.

They declared victory after Mr. Abhisit was forced to cancel the 16-country summit, where leaders of regional powers China, Japan and India, and the U.N. secretary-general and president of the World Bank, planned to discuss the global financial crisis.

Mr. Abhisit later denounced the protesters on national television as the “enemies of Thailand.”

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Saturday declared a state of emergency in Chonburi province including Pattaya, venue of ASEAN and related summits after anti-government protesters broke into the conference center.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) related summits scheduled on April 10-12 have been canceled because of security reason, the Thai government announced Saturday.

The summits have been postponed to a later date, said Panitan Waltanyakorn, the acting government spokesman. He did not give a specific new date.

Before the announcement of cancellation of summits, the red-shirted protesters had broken into the summits venue and the media center, which made the summits impossible.

After the emergency decree, the protesters have begun to retreat from the media center and the meeting venue.

Foreign leaders of the participating countries started to evacuate from hotels after the meetings were canceled. Earlier, protester leaders said they would stop Thai prime minister’s convoy to prevent him from attending scheduled summits.

Source: washingtontimes.com, news.yahoo.com