Kenyan runners zipped past other participants in the Kinmen Marathon yesterday, coming first in both the men’s and women’s events and breaking records for the full marathon.
Samson Kiptoo Bungei completed the 42km run in 2 hours, 17 minutes and 44 seconds in the men’s division, while Emily Chepkemoi Samoei captured the women’s title by finishing the race in 2 hours, 39 minutes and 10 seconds.
In the half-marathon races, Taiwan’s Ho Chin-ping (何盡平) grabbed the men’s title after racing across the 21km distance in 1 hour, 8 minutes and 12 seconds, while Hsu Yu-fang (許玉芳), also from Taiwan, clocked 1 hour, 18 minutes and 46 seconds to win in the women’s group.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
Both set new records for the half-marathon.
Ho and Hsu were also the fastest Taiwanese at the Taipei Fubon Marathon last month, although they came behind two different runners from Kenya.
Ho, a substitute physical education teacher in Greater Kaohsiung, was suffering through an emotional low point in his life after experiencing difficulties finding a job, but said that yesterday’s win and the support of spectators had lifted his spirits.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
His brother, Ho Chin-wen (何盡文), also performed well. He finished third in the men’s full marathon, clocking 2 hours, 34 minutes and 28 seconds to win the title of fastest Taiwanese in the division.
Ho Chin-wen said the run went smoothly for the most part, but he developed a blister on the big toe of his right foot by the 35km mark, forcing him to run the remaining 7km barefoot.
The setback seemed to be only minor, as he said he was 1 minute behind his record at last month’s Taipei marathon, though he attributed the difference to not having fully recovered from that race.
Amid the fierce competition there were some heart-warming stories.
Liu Tzu-wei (劉子葳), 22, suffered from depression before he turned to exercise to regain physical and mental health.
He kept a photograph of his late grandfather attached to his arm as he competed in the men’s full marathon, saying he hoped his grandfather was watching him run.
In total, 3,247 runners from 11 countries participated in competitive events on Kinmen, including the 42km, 21km and 11km races, marking the highest turn-out that the Kinmen Marathon has ever seen.
Another 20,000 people joined a non-competitive 5km fun run, police estimated.
Now in its seventh year, the marathon began at 7am at the National Quemoy University.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods