About 28,000 runners yesterday morning hit the road in the annual Taipei Marathon, with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) saying that the event might be the only large-scale city marathon held in the world this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The runners, mostly wearing masks, gathered in front of Taipei City Hall in cold and rainy weather before sunrise as they waited for Ko to fire the starting shot at 6:30am.
Ko said that since its launch in 1986, the Taipei Marathon has become part of Taipei’s city branding and an important event to promote international tourism.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
A total of 3,692 foreign nationals from more than 60 countries attended the race in 2018, he said.
More than 37,000 people registered to join this year’s race, but to maintain quality, only 28,000 people were selected through a lottery, he added.
The Taipei Marathon is the first marathon in the nation to obtain the World Athletics Bronze Label Road Race certification, and its routes are certified by the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races, but the city government is still working to improve the event and obtain the Platinum Label, Ko said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The slogan of this year’s marathon was “Dare to breathe” to encourage the runners to challenge themselves and show gratitude to the disease prevention personnel for their efforts to protect people from COVID-19 so that runners could take big breaths and run toward the finish line, the organizers said.
“This event might be the largest marathon held in the world since the pandemic broke out,” Ko said. “We want to thank all the disease prevention personnel for their continuous efforts, so that we can have such impressive success in fighting COVID-19.”
Runners were required to wear a mask at the starting point and after crossing the finish line, while spectators were required to wear a mask at all times during the event.
Photo: CNA
Ko urged people to continue to wear masks and wash their hands frequently to maintain Taiwan’s good disease prevention performance.
The Taipei Department of Sports said that 12 top runners from other countries were invited to join the race this year.
They underwent a 14-day mandatory quarantine, during which treadmills were provided at their hotels for them to practice, and were tested for COVID-19 several times before the race.
Kenyan runner Paul Lonyangata won in the men’s division, finishing in 2 hours, 9 minutes and 18 seconds, setting a record for the Taipei Marathon, while Ethiopian runner Askale Wegi won in the women’s division, finishing in 2 hours, 28 minutes and 31 seconds.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
RSS