‘Seeing is Believing’ at the Hong Kong Marathon

It was a race to the finish line for the 40,000-plus participants of the recent 2006 Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, which saw amateur and professional runners beating world, regional, and personal records in the so-called harbor race across Hong Kong last Feb. 12.

At the end of the event, Kenyan runner Simon Bor and Ethiopian runner Dire Tune were the overall winners of the men’s and women’s marathon. The half marathon winners were Hong Kong runner Chan Ka Ho in the Men’s Senior 1 category, while last year’s women’s half marathon champion Tegla Loroupe successfully defended her title. The 10-kilometer race was won by Hong Kong athlete Lee Chi Wo in the men’s category and Ng Hei Man in the women’s category.

It was Bor’s first time to win the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon with a time of 2 hours, 14 minutes, and 18 seconds, while Ethiopian Dire Tune took home the top prize in the women’s marathon with a time of 2 hours, 35 minutes, and 15 seconds. Each winner received US$15,000 from the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon prize purse of US$100,000 for their performance. Bor’s time also moved Team Kenya from fourth to second place in the Team Challenge of Standard Chartered’s international marathon series, the Greatest Race on Earth.

The 2006 Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon was the fourth and last leg in Standard Chartered’s Greatest Race on Earth (GROE), a relay of four challenging marathons across four cities in Nairobi, Singapore, Mumbai, and Hong Kong. The GROE saw athletes running in some of the most difficult conditions in the world, battling altitude, heat, humidity, and uphill courses. The Greatest Race, which is now in its second series, started in Nairobi, Kenya in October 2005, moving to Singapore in December 2005, followed by Mumbai last January and Hong Kong last month.

The 2005-2006 GROE attracted 578 runners, twice the number from the first series. Of the different categories in the Greatest Race, the Nations Challenge attracted 27 national athletics associations to submit teams of four runners, one to run in each marathon, in this relay race across continents.

The Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, which is now in its 10th year, started in the historic Kowloon district and took runners between skyscrapers, over bridges, through a tunnel and on to a punishing final five-kilometer climb to the finishing line on the opposite side of Hong Kong harbor.

Standard Chartered Bank Philippines joined 56 other countries in the Hong Kong Marathon last Feb. 12. Of the 40,000 runners who joined the event, 2,000 of them are officers and staff of the UK-based Standard Chartered Bank.

This was the second year SCB Philippines supported the international marathon by fielding an 11-man contingent to the Hong Kong event. Reynaldo delos Reyes of the Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association participated in the full 42-kilometer marathon. The rest were SCBP officers with the mission of promoting SCB’s "Seeing is Believing" global campaign for reducing blindness in the world.

Standard Chartered’s "Seeing is Believing" campaign aims to collect funds to provide medical facilities to return sight to one million visually-impaired persons in developing countries.

Allan Co, vice president and head of secured value center and SME product, together with Mike Francisco, vice president and human resources relationship manager, ran in the 21-kilometer half marathon. Eight other officers ran in the 10-kilometer marathon. They were Ronnie Austria, vice president and area manager of Quezon City and Caloocan branches; Mike Prats, vice president and head of organizational learning; Andrew Cajucom, vice president and product manager for credit cards and personal loans; Abigail Cardino, portfolio manager, marketing consumer banking; Nikky Garcia, assistant vice president and head — customer service; Maricris Mauhay, business finance manager; Io Mamangun-Cabrera, corporate affairs officer; and Rainier Cruz, client service officer and vice president-SCB labor union.

Three members of the management committee were also helping the SCB Philippines team at the Hong Kong Marathon. They were Marivel Gonzales, head of legal and compliance; Nhilda Causing, chief executive officer; and Zeny Iglesias, head of corporate affairs.

First to run in the race were participants in the 10-kilometer race. Although the race was not to start until 5:45 a.m., Nathan Road, where the Hong Kong Marathon’s starting line was located, was swarming with athletes getting ready to run an hour before the event. From the time the starting shot was fired at exactly 5:45 a.m., it took more than 15 minutes for all the 10-kilometer race participants to clear the starting line. The crisp morning air was no match to the enthusiasm of the athletes.

Joining the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon half-marathon race was Kenyan athlete Henry Wanyoike, the ambassador of goodwill for Standard Chartered Bank’s "Seeing is Believing" global campaign for reducing blindness in the world. Leading the guests of honor at the marathon starting and finish lines were Standard Chartered Bank top executives: Mervyn Davies, CBE, group chief executive-Standard Chartered PLC; Mike DeNoma, group executive director-Standard Chartered Bank PLC; Kai Nargolwala, group executive director-Standard Chartered Bank PLC; and Peter Sullivan, CEO-Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong. DeNoma himself ran the 21-kilometer half-marathon.

It was DeNoma who conceived the idea of the Greatest Race on Earth. In fact, he is so passionate about the event that he ran in all four GROE marathons.

"We believe at Standard Chartered that actions speak louder than words – and that has been proven this season with the Greatest Race becoming even bigger and better," DeNoma says. "This season, there are more teams from more countries, running faster times. We saw straightaway in Nairobi that the bar has been raised in this series, with an amazing 138 runners running inside of the two hours, 30 minutes mark. Then, in Singapore, the top Greatest Race runner won the overall marathon and broke the course record. And in Mumbai, the top three male runners and the top female runner shattered the previous course records."

"As well as attracting proven world-class athletes from around the globe to compete, we are drawing the stars of the future. The Greatest Race is proving to be an excellent platform for up-and-coming runners to break into the international athletic arena. Many are expected to go on to challenge for world and Olympic honors in years to come," DeNoma adds.

Henry Wanyoike, SCB ambassador of goodwill for its "Seeing is Believing" campaign, says he trained hard for the Hong Kong Marathon. As SCB ambassador of goodwill, he has traveled to the United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore and India enlisting public support for the visually impaired and serving as an inspiration to the children of the world.

"My target is to win this race, if not improve the personal best I achieved in 2004," he explained. "The challenge is not that I have lost my sight; but running without sight is not that easy. You need total commitment, sacrifice, and courage to run. It is tough to run against people with sight, but I still manage to win against sighted people. It is just a way of showing that even if you cannot see, you must still have the vision to overcome your disability."

Benefiting SCB’s global awareness campaign of "Seeing is Believing" is the Philippine beneficiary, Resources for the Blind Inc., a non-government organization, which pioneered in community service work to empower people afflicted with blindness.

For the past three years, SCB Philippines has raised funds for the RBI School in Cubao, specifically with its "Read a Braille" program. RBI is the only NGO publishing textbooks in Braille and distributing these for free among 200 accredited public schools nationwide, which accepts blind students. SCB has likewise contributed to RBI medical missions, which has benefited cataract patients around the country.

Aside from its support to the "Seeing is Believing" campaign through the Greatest Race on Earth marathon series, SCB Philippines has also mounted similar events, like "BisikLaeta" bicycle marathon and "Follow the Sun," a locally-themed Amazing Race, where staff, their families, and bank business partners raised funds for school fees and needs of RBI’s multi-handicapped children.