MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
The Stanley Marathon: just the start of something big?
Despite an early forecast of strong winds, the second annual Standard Chartered Bank Stanley Marathon took place today, Sunday, in almost perfect conditions.
The winner, as last year, was 46 year old Hugh Marsden, a long time resident of the Falklands, now living in Britain, who will be lucky to see any change once the cost of his journey is subtracted from his £1.000 first prize.
The 25 mile course, which begins and ends at the Standard Chartered Bank on Ross Road, was measured on the 7th of February by Hugh Jones, Secretary of the Association of International Marathons and Road Races (AIMS), which means that the race is now an accredited international event.
The organiser is Nick Hutton, Manager of the Stanley, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), branch of Standard Chartered Bank , who told Mercopress, "Our real mission is to make this attractive and to bring in people from overseas"
Internationally, Standard Chartered Bank have been associated with many marathons, including those in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bombay and Nairobi, which are collectively known as "The Greatest Race on Earth". Describing a marathon as "a good community event that anyone can get involved in" Mr. Hutton said that the difference with the Stanley marathon was that it was not only sponsored by the bank, from its corporate social responsibility budget, but also directly bank-organised.
Mr. Hutton was not downcast by the fact that this year's entry of 65 runners was a little down on last year's nor by the fact that the number of international entrants was also down from six to three.
Next year's event, provisionally scheduled for 18th March will be advertised by AIM through their website, which is accessed by serious runners throughout the world. Many of these, according to Mr. Hutton, who has himself competed in both Stanley marathons, like to 'collect' marathons in interesting and different places.
While Mr. Hutton does not expect that the Stanley Marathon will ever compete in popularity with London, New York or Boston, he does hope that eventually Stanley will see as many as 100 overseas competitors, competing in what is claimed to be the world's most southerly certified marathon and the only international sporting event ever to be staged in the Falkland Islands.
John Fowler (Mercopress) Stanley
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