Asian Games 3K run draws hordes of boys, girls

Over 300 school children from the city of Manila joined and finished the Asian Games 3K Fun Run early yesterday morning to celebrate sports and highlight the 15th Asian Games scheduled in Doha, Qatar in 2006.

Organized by the Olympic Council of Asia to promote the forthcoming quadrennial event, the event is one of similar races held earlier this year in India, South Korea, Thailand, China and Syria and will be continued next year in Vietnam, Turkmenistan, Bhutan, Lebanon and Mongolia.

"We are delighted that our friends from the Philippine Olympic Committee have worked with us for a successful staging of the Asian Games Fun Run in Manila, sports empowers us all to achieve and bring a sense of unity across a breadth of race, ethnicity, religion, and gender and this fun run epitomizes this aim and helps strengthen the OCA objective of developing understanding and friendship throughout the continent," said OCA president H.E. Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al Sabah in a released statement.

The event, hosted by the city of Manila and supported by the Manila Sports Council headed by Ali Atienza, Milo and AND 1, started and ended at the Baywalk Area using the South-bound stretch of Roxas Boulevard which was closed to traffic.

DOT Undersecretary Cynthia Carreon led the young participants in the warm-up exercises before the run while present at the awarding ceremonies was POC first vice president Steve Hontiveros together with wushu world champion Arwin Ting and veteran international boxer Roel Velasco.

The fun run, which featured three age groups in both the boys and girls divisions, was organized locally by the Sports For All Commission headed by Triathlon Association of the Philippines president Tom Carrasco Jr.

The Doha Asian Games Organizing Committee (DAGOC) has been appointed by the OCA to organize the 15th Asian Games Doha 2006 set Dec. 1-15, 2006 with over 10,000 athletes and officials, 20,000 visitors, and 18,000 volunteers expected to be at Qatar’s capital of Doha.

The Asian Games, organized under the exclusive authority and auspices of the OCA, is the largest multi-sport event in the region with 40 sports and 411 events to be played throughout the two-week period of the Games.