Marathon delight for Ma and French mum

[geovalin]

Marathon delight for Ma

Mon, 7 March 2016

H S Manjunath

Ma Viro of Cambodia yesterday won the fifth annual Sihanoukville half-marathon and Veronique Messina of France won the women’s event. The 21-kilometre Angkor Beer International Half Marathon charity event took place along a picturesque route in the port city. In a field of just over 80 runners, 27-year old Ma Viro, who had success here and in Siem Reap in the past few years with podium finishes, successfully fended off a strong challenge from Brendon Thomas of the United States, who is as old as his Cambodian rival, to win in one hour, 17 minutes and 45 seconds,

While the American’s gallant effort saw him get up to within a minute at the finish, the revelation of the race was an other American teenager, Josiah Kangas, who clocked in third at 1:36.47 as one of the youngest to make the frame in any of Cambodia’s international long-distance races.

Just as she had demolished the opposition on previous occasions, Veronique Messina put daylight between her and the rest in the women’s half marathon which drew around 25 runners. The 37-year-old Messina, who works as a French teacher in Phnom Penh and counts long-distance running as one of her greatest passions, was not hard put to it as she set her own tempo to check in first at 1:38.49, nearly 10 minutes ahead of the American pair of Hillary Shyder and Sara Bawden, who ironically were separated by a fraction of a second.

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/sport/marathon-delight-ma