Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2010.

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May 20, 2010
STANDARD CHARTERED MARATHON SINGAPORE 2010
New marathon routes

PARTICIPANTS of this year's Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore will run through some of the most exciting stretches of road, winding down Orchard Road, through Universal Studios Singapore in Sentosa or on the newly opened Helix Bridge.

The route and starting point will depend on which category they sign up for.

The Singapore Sports Council (SSC) - the organisers of the inaugural SCMS 2010 with Standard Chartered Bank as the title sponsor, opened registrations on Thursday for the year-end event with six race categories allowing for participation from more segments of the public.

Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan, who officiated at the launch of the event at Raffles Place Park, said he expected the race to grow from strength to strength and was looking forward to the Dec 5 event.

'We are extremely delighted with the firm support from Standard Chartered Bank for this new marathon, which promises to be a unique and exciting race for everyone. There will be something for everyone and the iconic routes will provide a great runners' experience for locals as well as showcase our iconic landmarks to international participants," he said.

'With an anticipated 60,000 runners, unique iconic routes and an opportunity to broadcast the event to the world, we expect the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore to grow into one of the world's most anticipated running events.'

Full marathon runners will run down Orchard Road with the Christmas light-up in full operation after the flag-off near Ngee Ann City. Runners will be taken past iconic landmarks such as the colourful Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts building, followed by bustling Chinatown and the grand Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay.

Half marathon runners will start their run on Sentosa Bridge and can expect to be taken through South-east Asia's first and only Universal Studios theme park at Resorts World Sentosa, where they might be greeted by Shrek, Po (from Kung Fu Panda) and other well-known animated characters. This is the first marathon to be taking place within the newly opened Universal Studios Singapore.

As for the 10km category, runners will start off at the Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay and will run past Singapore's Financial District before moving over to the new Helix Bridge.

A new feature of Singapore's pinnacle running race is the Ekiden relay, which enjoys a huge following in Japan, United States and Australia. The relay event will consist of six runners per team, and together, these six runners will have to run a total of 42.195km.

The organisers of the SCMS2010 are in talks with major transportation companies and will provide a baggage deposit and transfer system for runners who participate in the full and half marathons to have their bags transported from the starting points to the end points.

This is similar in practice at various other well-known marathons which have different starting and ending points such as the Hong Kong and London marathons. A bus ferry service will also be available at the finish point to ferry runners back to the start points at Orchard Road and Sentosa Bridge.