25th Official Asian Games Fun
Run in Macau, China
28-05-2006
Over three hundred children
sprinted to the finish line in Macau Stadium, on Sunday 28th
May, as part of the 25th Official Asian Games Fun Run. The
Fun Run celebrated sport in Asia and highlighted the 15th
Asian Games Doha 2006.
Organised by the Olympic
Council of Asia (OCA), Macau Olympic Committee (MOC) and the
Macau China Athletics Association, the fun run consisted of
three different age groups of children ranging from nine to 15
years.
The fun run was originally
planned to be outdoors around the stadiums main athletics
track, however due to unforeseen heavy rain, the event was
brought indoors. The considerably smaller indoor track meant
that the run was more of a sprint and the 300 kids were
divided into groups of 10 – 15 kids running at any one time.
Each child’s time was recorded and then the top ten runners in
the three different ages groups were awarded with gifts from
the NOC.
It wasn’t just the top ten
runners that were rewarded for their efforts as each child
that took part received a certificate of achievement and a
limited edition 15th Asian Games T-shirt from the OCA.
The first , second and third
placed runners from each race were presented with gold, silver
and bronze medals, respectively, by Mr Charles Lo, Secretary
General, MOC, Mr Ma Iao Hang, Vice President, MOC and Mr Eddie
Laam, President, MOC. Certificates were also presented to the
children by special guests Haider Farman, OCA, Louis Louis,
DAGOC and Olivier Niamkey, Olympic Solidarity.
The event attracted wide-spread
press attention with TVM (Macau TV station) Macau Daily News
and Vakio Daily Newspapers present at the event to report on
all the action.