Cambodia's Next Top Runner - Event 4 - 5km

photos courtesy of Tom Vosters

PPAC team up with NTU to manage their 5km monthly run

Mass start for all runners in the 5km road race event

This week we had another early 6am start for the 5km road race. We were once again away from the city’s heavy traffic in Chroy Changvar, a quiet but rapidly growing district just over the other side of the Tonle Sap river from central Phnom Penh. This week we had the chance to team up with the NTU Alumni Association who host a monthly race which has a prize fund of 80,000 Riel (around $20) for each of the top ten finishers. We grabbed the opportunity and offered to coordinate the race for everybody and have their 30+ runners join the CNTR 2020 athletes in one big joint event in what we hoped would be a great example of the power of positive collaboration. So we had one race, 49 runners and, for the first time, some prize money at stake. The CNTR athletes are starting to get used to more regular competitive running, but would they rise to this new challenge and additional incentives? Let’s find out.

Watch the full video of how the event went down here

You can see all the photos from the event on our Facebook page

Race build-up
After the third event of the competition, the 400 m, Neil Bianchi was at the top of the standings after a strong sub-60 second performance to get second place, but a dominant victory by Bunthorn Chhun saw him close in on the top two positions. Another strong performance this week from Bunthorn would see the gap reduced even further. The showdown between the current top two – Neil & Loup Colombi could go a long way to deciding their final positions, with Loup dominating the 10km race in event 2 and with a superior PB. Would his greater endurance strength be a deciding factor?

Everyone gathers at 5:40am for the pre-race briefing

The Race With 45 runners lining up at the start it was important for the top athletes to get ahead of the pack and ensure a clear road ahead. That is exactly what happened as five athletes led the race off at a very fast pace, with Bunthorn and fellow national athlete Ma Viro leading the charge and crossing the finish line for the first 730 m section in just 2:15 followed by Loup, Neil and Sophut Phat in 2:18. These two groups proceeded to dominate the race with Bunthorn and Viro maintaining a high pace, and Bunthorn eventually outrunning his compatriot by 19 seconds to win in 16:47 and set a new 5 km PB. The following group of three stuck together until the final lap, where fellow Cambodian Sophut put his foot down to stretch away and claim third place overall (2nd place for CNTR) in a 17:37 PB. The tussle between Colombi and Bianchi went down to the final lap and with Bianchi experiencing a shoe malfunction and crossing for the final lap 8 seconds down on his rival he had a lot of work to do. However, a strong final lap of 7:39 enabled him to chase down the fourth placed athlete with just over a kilometre to go and build a 15 second gap by the time he was the 3rd CNTR athlete over the line in a first sub-18 minute performance and new PB.

Volunteers operating apps for accurate electronic timing

Further down the field strong performances again from young Australian and American athletes Jacob and Mason earned both PBs with sub-19 and sub-20 minute performances respectively to claim 5th and 6th place (CNTR) and importantly place within the top 10 overall. Meyjou Heng flying the flag for the female contingent finished strongly to edge out compatriot Seanghai Poun by just four seconds to claim seventh place in 20:44. The top three of the overall points standings remains unchanged after three events, though Australian Jacob Hodges has pushed his way into fourth position by just one point after a great performance this week, finishing comfortably ahead of incumbent Poun while also benefiting from the absence of Chan. Top female athlete Meyjou Heng maintained her 8th position in the overall standings of the open category competition while Phat Sophut climbed back up the table to 9th with his 2nd place.

Top 10 finishers get awarded their prize money

Collaborating with the running community and encouraging participation Four events into the competition and we still don’t have funding or sponsorship, although this week, through our partnership with the NTU Alumni Association, our athletes had the opportunity to win prize money should they place in the overall top ten. We believe this to be one important factor that can contribute to more athletes taking part.
By cooperating with the NTUAA for the 5km race, we created a popular event that attracted many more runners than our previous events. We received a lot of positive feedback following this collaboration, and we hope to have sent a positive message about athletics and running. Successful collaborations like this can help us further our aims of:

• Promoting and supporting the best runners in Cambodia while showcasing what a tough and challenging but ultimately, rewarding sport it is;
• Creating more races and running activities with a wide range of participants, irrespective of age, gender and distance they chose to run, be they professionals, amateurs or the many who do it for general exercise.
• Promoting more interaction within and outside of the community, and creating relationships that will help further the development of the sport.

This week’s event ticked a number of boxes: a well organised road race with accurate course measurement and timing, well deserved rewards for the first ten finishers and plenty of fun and smiling faces all round.

Everyone gathers round for a race debrief and awards

Here are the final results of CNTR competitors including lap split times

Here's the overall standings after 4 events

Faced with significant outside competition for the first time, Cambodia’s Next Top Runners acquitted themselves admirably, with six in the top ten prize winning positions, taking four of the top five places, including victory, in addition to 7th and 10th places, all in sub-20 minute times. With ten sub-20 minute performances shared equally between Cambodian and international runners this was one of the strongest 5 km races in recent memory, and testament to the hard work and dedication of all these athletes as well as the effort made by all parties involved to organise the event.

Here are the overall results of all participants. 49 started, 45 finished, with 5 not registering their details at the end

A question of equal participation It may have come to your attention while following CNTR, and also while watching this week's event video that participation by women and girls has so far been very limited.
At CNTR we would like to see more female participation and at present we haven’t been able to achieve this. If any organisations are interested in working with us to help further the development of female participation in sport via athletics and running then please get in contact. While we continue our commitment to making our events as widely accessible as possible we would love to hear from you.