Addressing the Sunday closing ceremony, Danish Ambassador to Vietnam, John Nielsen and Lao Cai provincial leaders expressed their desire to continue supporting and organising the race in 2015, in an effort to turn it into an annual event in the following years.
The 2014 marathon took place on September 20-21 in relatively erratic weather, which featured numerous spells of showers. However, those natural challenges could not prevent brave athletes from completing their registered running stages.
Simon Grimstrup – an experienced Danish runner – was the fastest in the men’s 70km ultra-marathon (eight hours and 33 minutes), while David Lloyd from the United Kingdom and German Florian Deichman were the first across the line in the 42km marathon and 21km half marathon with respective times of 5:47:50 and 2:15:50.
Samantha Young and Kayla Feld – both from the United States – and Swiss Nora Senn, finished supreme in the women’s 42km (marathon), 21km (half marathon) and 70km (ultra-marathon) respectively with times of 6:27:20, 2:49:45 and 10:12:55.
The 10km stage, which was open for locals, got underway on Sunday, witnessing 16-year-old H’Mong ethnic boy, Sung A Toa coming in first place after 55 minutes. Receiving VND4 million (US$188) as the winner, Toa would use VND1 million (US$47) as a registration fee for the upcoming contest to realise his dream of becoming a tour guide.
More than 500 runners from 40 countries around the world joined the two-day event, co-organised by the Danish Embassy and Topas Ecolodge, making it the biggest international marathon event ever in Vietnam.
Each marathon runner donated US$20 as their race entry fee to “Sapa O’Chau” in order to improve educational opportunities for young minority residents in the Sapa region who have not completed their schooling.
