Some 20,000 people participated in a 10km road run in Taipei yesterday — the first leg of the Human Race, a global running event touted as the largest of its kind in the world.
A host of professional runners, athletes from the Taiwanese Olympic team and professional basketball players joined President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and officials from the Sports Affairs Council to hit the road at 6am for the race.
The runners began at Taipei City Hall and completed the race at the Dajia Riverside Park in Dazhi District (大直).
Wu Wen-chien (吳文騫), 31, who represented Taiwan in the men’s marathon competition at the Beijing Olympics, won the men’s division in yesterday’s race by finishing with a time of 30 minutes and 35 seconds.
Hsu Yu-fang (許玉芳), 26, a marathoner who participated in the 2004 Athens Olympics, won the women’s division with a time of 36:06.
The run, sponsored by global sportswear giant Nike, will move from Taipei to Shanghai, London, Paris, New York and 20 other “race cities” around the world.
The 25 cities were selected based on the geographical locations seen as best suited to showcase some of the most famous landmarks and unique race courses in the world. The cities must also be deemed capable of hosting a large number of runners.
The other 20 cities are Austin Texas, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Chicago, Istanbul, Los Angeles, Lima, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, Munich, Quito, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, Vancouver and Warsaw.
At the end of the race in Taipei, a live concert was held at the Dajia Riverside Park to fete the runners and their sport.
Meanwhile, the head office of Nike donated US$1 million to www.ninemillion.org, a UN refugee agency campaign that provides help for refugee children and other public interest organizations.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Temperatures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) climbed past 37°C yesterday, as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued heat alerts for 16 municipalities, warning the public of intense heat expected across Taiwan. The hottest location in Taiwan was in Sindian, where the mercury reached 37.5°C at about 2pm, according to CWA data. Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) recorded a temperature of 37.4°C at noon, Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) at 12:50 pm logged a temperature of 37.4°C and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份) reached 36.7°C at 11:40am, the CWA said. The weather agency yesterday issued a yellow level information notice for Taipei, New
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans