Some 20,000 people participated in a 10km road run in Taipei yesterday — the first leg of the Human Race, a global running event touted as the largest of its kind in the world.
A host of professional runners, athletes from the Taiwanese Olympic team and professional basketball players joined President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and officials from the Sports Affairs Council to hit the road at 6am for the race.
The runners began at Taipei City Hall and completed the race at the Dajia Riverside Park in Dazhi District (大直).
Wu Wen-chien (吳文騫), 31, who represented Taiwan in the men’s marathon competition at the Beijing Olympics, won the men’s division in yesterday’s race by finishing with a time of 30 minutes and 35 seconds.
Hsu Yu-fang (許玉芳), 26, a marathoner who participated in the 2004 Athens Olympics, won the women’s division with a time of 36:06.
The run, sponsored by global sportswear giant Nike, will move from Taipei to Shanghai, London, Paris, New York and 20 other “race cities” around the world.
The 25 cities were selected based on the geographical locations seen as best suited to showcase some of the most famous landmarks and unique race courses in the world. The cities must also be deemed capable of hosting a large number of runners.
The other 20 cities are Austin Texas, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Chicago, Istanbul, Los Angeles, Lima, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, Munich, Quito, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, Vancouver and Warsaw.
At the end of the race in Taipei, a live concert was held at the Dajia Riverside Park to fete the runners and their sport.
Meanwhile, the head office of Nike donated US$1 million to www.ninemillion.org, a UN refugee agency campaign that provides help for refugee children and other public interest organizations.
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