Summary: MUMBAI, India, Sunday, January 18th, 2009
MUMBAI, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire-Asia/ --
China’s Greatest Race on Earth (GROE) 2008/09 teams are confident that Zhang Ao and Liu Lijuan can deliver victory in the third leg of the marathon series in Mumbai on 18 January.
GROE, sponsored by Standard Chartered, sees teams of runners compete in one of four marathons, with the winning teams being the ones with the quickest cumulative times at the end of the series.
After the opening two legs in Nairobi and Singapore, China currently sit third in the men’s North East Asia and Rest of The World division, 20 minutes 31 seconds behind group leaders, Peru. The women’s team is one position better in second place, 15 minutes 50 seconds behind Australia but just 2 minutes 26 seconds ahead of Hong Kong.
The Chinese runners go into the race full of confidence having trained for GROE for four years and have even finalized their preparations for the marathon at a special training course in Dalian where they acclimatized to similar conditions that they will face in Mumbai.
The athletes’ head coach, Ma Zhongfei said, "Zhang Ao and Liu Lijuan are just 20 years old and so energetic. They have had a great preparation and have enormous potential to win the race."
For the first time GROE has partnered with Seeing is Believing (SiB), the global initiative which tackles avoidable blindness and is a partnership between Standard Chartered and the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB).
SiB will directly benefit from the race series with runners being encouraged to use their participation to raise sponsorship and awareness for the initiative. These runners include Standard Chartered China staff member Morris Yeun who is running blindfolded in Mumbai.
A Visually Impaired All-Stars team are taking part in the series on behalf of SiB including China’s Beijing Paralympic Marathon winner and world record holder Qi Shun, who will be taking over the baton for the final leg of the series in Hong Kong on 8 February.
Footage shot to broadcast standards and free of charge and no copyright restrictions, is available via the APTN Global Video Wire and via the media gallery at http://www.thegreatestrace.com
APTN TRANSMISSION
DATE: Sunday 18th January 2009
TIME: 1215-1230 GMT
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DATE: Sunday 18th January 2009
TIME: 1415-1430 GMT
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