This year’s Bank Jateng Borobudur Marathon race emphasizes the quality rather than the quantity of the participants.
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MAGELANG, KOMPAS – National athletes and foreign elite runners will take part in the 2017 Bank Jateng Borobudur Marathon on Sunday in Magelang, Central Java. This year’s marathon race emphasizes the quality rather than the quantity of the participants.
Carrying the theme of “Re-growing in Harmony,” 2017 Bank Jateng Borobudur Marathon (BJBM 2017) will feature 8,754 runners from various regions in Indonesia, as well as other countries. The race, rich in culture and an attraction for tourists, will be divided into three main categories: 10k, a 21km half marathon and a 42km marathon. Registration for the race closed on Wednesday.
Participants include world class athletes from Kenya who often win marathon races in Southeast Asia. They include Kennedy Kiproo Lilan, winner of the 2016 Kuala Lumpur Marathon and 2016 Jakarta Marathon, Henry Kiprotich Sang, 2017 winner of the Maybank Bali Marathon and Kiprop Tinui, runner up of the 2016 Bali Marathon.
The three elite runners from Africa will spice up the competition in the marathon category. Other than the foreign athletes, some national athletes, who boast a plethora of achievements, such as Agus Prayogo, Acong Tio, Jauhari Johan and Triyaningsih, will also enliven BJBM 2017, which has a total prize of Rp 2 billion on offer.
Tio and Jauhari are set to compete in the 10K category. Agus, a gold medal winner in the 10,000 meter category at the 2017 Southeast Asian Games, will be running in the half marathon race. The long-distance runner had initially signed up for the marathon category.
“In the end I chose to run in the half marathon to prepare for a test marathon overseas in early 2018. This [BJBM 2017] is part of my preparation [for the 2018 Asian Games national training camp,]” said Agus on Thursday.
Agus, who also won a silver medal in the marathon category at the 2017 Southeast Asian Games, sees the BJBM 2017 as a prestigious national race that cannot be missed. He has set a target of winning the national category of the 21 km race. To achieve the target, he said he practiced long distance running as part of his regular training program.
He regularly runs up to 40 km at the athletics national training camp in Pangalengan, West Java. “I’m used to running that distance every day. This morning, I ran 25 km,” Agus said.
Indonesian Athletics Association (PASI) secretary general Tigor M Tanjung allowed national athletes to take part in BJBM. “The race can be treated by the athletes as part of their preparation for the 2018 Asian Games, as long as they do not take part in the marathon category. Specifically for the marathon, as stated in their schedule, they can only compete for it in February-March,” he said.
84 year-old runner
This year’s race will also feature a number of unique participants. One of them is Senda Keizo, a Japanese runner aged 79 years old. He will be the oldest participant running in the marathon category. Keizo, a member of the Hyaku running club, is one of very few runners in the world with a particularly unique feat. He has taken part in at least 691 marathon races in his life.
Other than Keizo, there is also Judith Vandikel, an 84 year-old runner from the Netherlands, who will be running in the 10K race category.
Tigor is confident that this year’s BJBM will be better than last year’s. PASI has checked the race route and given some suggestions to the organizing committee. “Hopefully, the presence of Kompas [as the organizer of the race] can bring about improvements from last year’s weaknesses. PASI fully supports this event,” he said.
This year, the number of BJBM participants is only around half of last year’s total number. In 2016, the number of BJBM participants was 19,000 people. BJBM 2017 event manager Budhi Sarwiadi said he deliberately restricted the number of participants to no more than 9,000 people to ensure the quality of the race. “The number [8,754 participants] is limited to the capacity of the track,” Budhi said.
To prevent dehydration in the race, the organizing committee will set up a number of hydration posts. The posts will be located at every 2.5 km interval for the first 20 km of the track. For the distances of 20 to 35 km, the hydration posts will be placed at every 2 km interval, and they will be available at every 1.5 km interval after the 35 km mark.