Kenyan rules philstar.com run

MANILA, Philippines - Kenyan Kemba Kiberes led the winners in the philstar.com Christmas Celebrity Run 2009 at the Fort in Global City in Taguig yesterday.

Kiberes clocked 1:15:22 to beat Alley Quisay (1:16:18) and Allan Ballester (1:20:12) and rule the men’s category of the 21k run while Maricel Maquilan timed 1:30:52 and bested Ailene Tolentino (1:39:27) and Ellen Tolentino (1:39:32) for the ladies crown in the event which drew around 4,000 runners.

“We are really happy with the number of people that signed up and took part. We were expecting a lot of people to opt not to run because of their busy holiday schedule but they still came,” said philstar.com’s general manager Katrina Sandejas Mañosa.

She added, “It was like one party of fellow-runners celebrating the Christmas season and the end of the year. I hope that the runners enjoyed the celebration as much as we did.”

Alquin Bolivar (0:31:34) topped Crifrankreadel Indapan (0:31:37) and Irinio Raquin (0:32:05) for the men’s 10k title while Luisa Raterta (0:36:05) took the ladies plum over Nhea-Ann Barcena (0:38:00) and Macrose Dichoso (0:38:42).

Mervin Guarte (0:16:14) beat Christoper Olboc Jr. (0:16:23) and Roger Denolo (0:16:40) for the men’s 5k title while Serenata Saljuan (0:20:27) took the ladies crown over Emma Magango (0:21:15) and Michelle De Vera (0:22:06).

Wenly Maulas (0:08:41) ruled the men’s 3k race, defeating Michael Bacong (0:08:49) and Ferdinand Corpuz (0:08:52) while Adjennie Rose Delos Santos (0:11:40) topped the ladies side over Carmela Sugalan (0:11:53) and Hazel Madamba (0:12:10).

Celebrities, online community members and lifestyle aficionados also took part in the fund-raising event. Among them were Christine Jacob-Sandejas, Maricel Laxa, Anthony Pangilinan, Miriam Quiambao and Manu Sandejas.

The event was designed to be a venue where philstar.com online community members could interact with celebrities from different fields, who share the same passion in running, healthy lifestyle, online literacy and charity work.

Proceeds of the race will help fund the computerization projects for Philippine public high schools under the GILAS (Gearing up Internet Literacy and Access for Students) program, a multi-sectoral initiative composed mainly of corporations and non-profit institutions, spearheaded by the Ayala Foundation.

The race was originally scheduled last Oct. 11 but was postponed to give way to relief, clean-up and rehabilitation efforts of Taguig City, one of the urban areas badly hit by Typhoon Ondoy last Sept. 26.

The philstar.com Christmas Celebrity Run 2009 was sponsored by Adidas, Yahoo! Philippines, E-Games, Brazilian Agaricus, Crocs, Nutribar, Smart, Coppertone, Aqua Blue, Sport Beans, Timex, Chris Sports, Vitwater and One Tagaytay Place, The Philippine STAR, Action & Fitness magazine, Men’s Health Philippines, Women’s Health Philippines, Magic 89.9, Jack TV, Jobstreet, Chikka, People Asia, NU 107 and takbo.ph.