Regular runner comes out top in first Putrajaya run

Winning line-up: Winners of the men’s senior veteran category Tan Wah Sing, Tang Chee Choon, Wong Weng Seng, Khor Ngee Leong and Ramakrishnan Manikam posing with (right) Stream Enterprise marketing manager Wei Chong Hwa.

IT WAS first time lucky for Noor Amelia Musa who competed in the New Balance Pacesetters 15km race in Putrajaya recently.

“Even though the race has been around for some time, I had never heard of it until this year,” said Noor Amelia who completed the race 10 minutes ahead of Jessica Tang Mei Lee (1’13:34) to win the women’s open category.


Crossing the line: Susan Khoo finishing her run in 1hr 8 mins to take the top spot in the Women’s Senior Veteran category.
She was also the only woman to tail the leading male runners till the end of the new route.

“After separating myself from the women’s pack, I made sure I stuck close to the first group of men,” she said, adding that she trains on hills, hence the flat 15km route was an easy challenge for her.

The 25-year-old — a regular on the local running circuit — said she was happy with her finishing time of 1’03.38.

She added that her coach had also reminded her to take the race as part of her training for the upcoming Standard Chartered KL Marathon on June 26

Noor Amelia said she would have to take a break from road races and concentrate on qualifying for a spot in the Sea Games at the end of this year.

In the men’s open category, Kenyans John Kprop Samoei (50:05) and Willy Kipkemoi Rotich (50:06) took the top two spots, respectively, while Morocco’s Ahmad Lamchannak finished third.

Unlike previous years where the race was held in the Lake Gardens in Kuala Lumpur, this time it was brought to Putrajaya where runners were flagged off from Dataran Perbandaran Putrajaya.

There were six categories for the 15km run — men’s open (16 years and above), men’s junior veteran (40 to 49 years), men’s senior veteran (50 years and above), women’s open (16 years and above), women’s junior veteran (35 to 45 years) and women’s senior veteran (46 years and above).

Source from
http://thestar.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2011/6/16/central/8865741&sec=central