Sri Lanka team off to a good start in Standard Chartered Greatest Race

The Nairobi Marathon, the first leg of the Standard Chartered Greatest Race on Earth (GROE) 2006/07 took place on 29 October, and was run at a breathlessly challenging altitude of 1,600m.

The first runner for the Sri Lankan national team Ishan Kumara Wijethilaka came in with a timing of 02:26:18 which places Sri Lanka a close 2nd to India and leading over Pakistan over Pakistan in the South Asian region challenge of the GROE.

The Sri Lankan national team comprises Ishan Kumara Wijethileke (Nairobi Marathon), Sujeewa Chandrapala (Singapore Marathon), Asela Bandara (Mumbai Marathon) and Ajith Bandara (Hong Kong Marathon). The team Manager is Jayantha Gamini Siyamudali.

While Standard Chartered Bank Sri Lanka sponsored a team to the 2004 GROE, this is the first time a national team comprising the country's four top marathon runners, endorsed by the Sri Lanka Athletics Association is participating for the nation challenge.

The Sri Lanka team will not only be competing for a share of the US$ 1.5 million total prize pool, the largest prize pool in world athletics, they will also be vying to bring home the GROE Gold Baton - a 9 carat, 300 gram, solid gold relay baton that has been specially commissioned for the race.

There is also prize money on offer for the first three placed teams in each of seven regions including the South Asian category in which Sri Lanka will competes against countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Standard Chartered's GROE the unique and truly international marathon relay series, dubbed the World Cup of Marathons, will this year see a record number of professional and national teams compete.

Some of the world's quickest marathon athletes will compete, in teams of four, running in one marathon each, their eyes firmly set on working together to achieve a faster cumulative time than their rivals and gaining a significant slice of the prize pool.

In total 82 teams have entered to compete this year. This includes 45 professional athlete teams who will set their sights on the US$400,000 prize for winning the Main Team Challenge, and 30 national teams sent by athletics associations around the world competing for the Nations Challenge. Both of these are increased on the number of teams entered in the 2004/05 and 2005/06 series. And the increased bonus pool on offer this series to all-women teams has seen the number of Women's Challenge teams rise to 15, also a GROE record.