VietNamNet Bridge – Runners will wear timing microchips for their accurate results at the 59th National Marathon Tournament by Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper which will be organised this Sunday in Dak Lak Province.

Runners take part in the Tien Phong Newspaper Marathon in 2017. This year event will be organised on Sunday in Dak Lak Province. — Photo dienkinh.vn

It is the first time that this technology has been applied in the tournament as the organisers want to ensure the results, avoid cheating and reduce the number of referees at work.

“The chips will be attached on athletes’ bibs. These will help us to supervise the runners throughout the races. Right after they touch the finish line we will know if they have run the right route or not. Their results will also be available at the time. And we don’t require too many referees like we did previously,” said Le Xuan Son, head of the organising board cum editor-in-chief of Tien Phong newspaper.

Nearly 500 athletes have registered to take part in the annual marathon. Among them, 230 are competing in the professional category while the rest are participating in the amateur disciplines.

Vietnam’s leading marathoners such as Bui The Anh and Vu Van Son on the men’s side and Nguyen Thi Y Tuyen and Nguyen Thi Le have confirmed their presence.

They will run in 14 different distances ranging from 2.5km to 42.195km. The Tien Phong Marathon is the event with largest number of categories in the national running tournament system.

Apart from the official events, there are also running tracks for 2,000 local students, soldiers, workers and residents.

Another new angle in the tournament is that athletes could send their registration online to avoid their missing profile problem that used to happen in the past.

This year, athletes will also be provided nutrition gel, fruit juice and ionized water during their marathon. As Sơn said, in this year’s event, athletes were considered the core of the event and organisers would provide them best conditions for best result.

Organisers will present awards to both individual champions and winning teams with a total cash of VND230 million (US$100,000).

“The number of participants has increased remarkably compared to the past, especially the amateur runners in the marathon event, to about five times more than last year,” Son said at the press briefing yesterday in Hanoi.

“The number of amateur runners is increasing rapidly. In one of the Facebook pages, we have more than 12,000 members and about 2,000 of us compete regularly. We always want to take part in a big event such as the Tien Phong Marathon. We also hope to have chance to join a tournament that gathers 10,000 to 20,000 runners like people do abroad. We believe that if the registration is simpler, the number of us would be much bigger than (130),” runner Pham Ha Lam said.

The marathon will be aired live on VTV6 channel from 6.30pm. 

Source: VNS