PPAC-75 10km Road Race

A high quality field lined up for only the second 10km road race of 2021. We welcomed two first timers and eleven athletes were running their first PPAC 10km race - a great opportunity to set a marker for long distance form as we head into the cooler months.

We were treated to another great performance and PPAC club record as Andarge set a new PB of 36:16 as personal records tumbled across the board. The day's biggest improvement came from Matt, continuing an amazing run of form, slashing 2:04 off his previous best closely followed by James and Jack with respective 1:37 and 55-second improvements. There were five Points PB's with big jumps for Guanghui and Dickson.

Well done to youth athlete Sreyleap for finishing comfortably under one hour in her first 10km race!

Mark produced by far the most consistent performance of the day, with Guanghui and top female finisher Yin Ling also sub-1.00 for consistency. The only athlete to record a personal Sokha Lap best was Dickson, all the more impressive considering his previous best was set during a 5k race.

In the fitness factor ratings there are several athletes in the mid-to-high 50's across a range of finish times of 36-45 minutes, with Jack top, just shy of the 60 threshold, testament to some excellent consistent training.

Thanks as always to the race officials and volunteers Seavmey and Sivmuyleng, and Seavmey & Matt for the videography and photography. Join us soon for another PPAC event!

© PPAC 2021

PPAC-74 3km Road Race

The 3km road race is a great opportunity to gauge if you have that extra bit of speed that will help you push for strong times in longer races down the line, in addition to the aerobic endurance you'll also need to have under your belt. It's also a great chance for younger athletes to get involved and experience racing something close to a high school cross country distance.

We were honoured this week to welcome for the first time H.E. Samheng Boros, the new president of the Khmer Amateur Athletic Federation, participating alongside four other new athletes.

There were great performances all round in the 3km road race, including a notable performance by Andarge, becoming the second PPAC athlete to go under 10 minutes and improving on Bunthorn's club record by a margin of 2.6s with his time of 9:56.

In the youth race, Piseth finished just ahead of Sreyleap, however, Sreyleap's proved to be the stronger points performance. Emilio came in another 15 seconds back, with an impressive points-scoring effort in his first event and all starters successfully completed the event.

There were PBs for 7 athletes with previously recorded times, with Sreyleap, Piseth and Seavmey recording the biggest improvements - all over 30s quicker than their previous best efforts, and Seavmey was the only athlete this week to score a PPAC points PB!

Sreyleap topped the consistency rankings, just ahead of Matt, with five athletes including newcomer Emilio scoring impressive consistency ratings of under 1.00. There were seven best Sokha lap performances, with Matt slicing a tiny 0.2s off his previous best, Yin Ling leapfrogging Meyjou by 2.2s for top female Sokha lap ranking (32nd overall), Leo climbing into the top-30 and Irina taking over 7 minutes off her previous best lap time!

The PPAC team would like to thank our helpers Seavmey and Seavleang for their valuable assistance. Join us again very soon for more exciting events!

© PPAC 2021

PPAC-73 5km Road Race

August's 5km road race took place in heavy overcast and humid conditions but we were delighted to welcome five 5k first timers and a few familiar faces to make brilliant use of the day's best weather conditions!

Results below are ordered by PPAC points performance and finish time. The standout performance of the morning was James setting a new PB by 2.6s as well is hitting a new points PB of 504.5 for fourth overall and going sub-20 for the first time in a PPAC 5km race.

Mark and Jack ran exceptionally consistently and newcomer Somaly rounded out the top three in the consistency rankings with James and Sanket also running well-paced efforts. First timers Sanket and Simon both finished the race very strongly with their 2nd loops around Sokha over a minute quicker than their first, suggesting there is much more to come!

Great to see so many new faces this week, thanks to our team of race officials Seavmey, Sivmuyleng and Meyjou for volunteering this week and hope to see all of you soon at the next event!

A final word of thanks to Elaine and Susu team for gifting these great running vests to members of the PPAC team - we look forward to more collaboration in the near future.

© PPAC 2021

Festival of Speed Part III - 1500m Road Race (Part Two)

The final youth heats of the 1500m Road Race brought the Festival of Speed to a close, with fourteen young athletes racing over two heats on a relocated course.

First up were the female youth athletes, setting off to complete three laps of the circuit before finishing the race back at the starting line. Senglim was first across the line followed by Sreypich, the athletes securing second and third place respectively in the overall race result behind Sreyleap who recorded the best time of 6:51.56 in the previous week's race. All athletes completed the course within 12 minutes.

The second heat featured a mix of youth and senior male and female athletes, including event winners Sreyleap and Piseth. Senghong was first across the line in 7:06.52, short of Piseth's previous effort of 6:28.45, and all athletes completed the race under 10 minutes.

Final standings after 3 of 3 events

In the final points table for the youth competition, Sreyleap and Piseth's three wins meant they both scored the maximum 60 points and claimed a Festival of Speed gold medal. In the female youth category Sreypich took silver with 49 points after two 2nd placed finishes in the 3km and 5km road races and 3rd place in the 1500m. Senglim was awarded the bronze medal after scoring 45 points from her 3rd, 4th and 2nd place performances in the three races. 

We'd like to congratulate all the athletes who took part, and especially well done to the ten runners who completed all three events of the Festival of Speed. The 1500m, 3km and 5km road races are important middle and long distance events in athletics and not to be taken lightly, so to complete all three as part of this competition represents a notable achievement for those who took part of which they can be very proud.
In addition to the great work of the PPAC volunteers we'd like to thank Elaine for her dedicated support for this group of young athletes, encouraging them to continue to train and helping instill the determination and commitment required to turn out and compete in such a challenging event!

© PPAC 2021
 

Festival of Speed Part III - 1500m Road Race [PPAC-72]

After a short delay the senior 1500m road race - the concluding event of the Festival of Speed - took place with four closely contested heats. Some youth athletes also took part and we hope the remaining youth athletes will be able to complete their event very soon (full youth event results and report will follow in a separate blog post).

With a slightly later start than recent events heats were scheduled at ten minute intervals with up to five athletes contesting a heat. Starting line numbers were limited to avoid crowding from the start with three-laps to be raced around an urban course with some short stretches and tight corners.

The heats went roughly in order of competition points ranking with the top male and female athletes kept together while race officials also competing were put in separate heats. 

In the first heat Andarge cemented his place at the top of the rankings with a third race win, starting strongly, staying just in front and pulling away very strongly up the finishing straight to cross the line 5 seconds ahead of Neil in second place. Further back Jack could not match Hugo's 5:09 so, in spite of a superior 5km performance, Hugo secured the final podium place.

The second heat saw Matt outsprint Meyjou in the final stretch for a time of 5:30 as the top female athlete finished comfortably ahead of her fellow podium athletes in 5:33. A close finish in heat three saw the top two finishers slot in between Matt and Meyjou in the final results table with Guanghui and Vannak registering 5:32 and 5:33 respectively.

In heat four first-timer Seavleang (also a race official for the competition) set off quickly and held on well to finish ahead of top youth athletes Piseth and Sreyleap.

Eleven athletes finished in under 6 minutes (sub-4:00/km pace), with two well under 5 minutes. Leonardo was the most consistent with all three laps within a 3 second range and a strong finish. As a first-time event, there are no PBs, though four athletes improved their PPAC Best Points scores including Bora who scored points for the first time! The podium places shared the top six points scores, underlining the high podium standard for both senior competitions.

Final standings after 3 of 3 events

The final senior podiums consisted of Meyjou and Andarge both securing gold with three wins out of three, followed by Neil and Muyngim in silver medal position and with bronze, Hugo and Yin Ling (just two points behind Muyngim). Congratulations to all the participants in the competition including two virtual entries, and especially to the twelve senior athletes who completed all three events.

Race-day volunteers Sivmuyleng and Seavleang were awarded a special appreciation trophy in recognition of a job well done for their duties as race officials for all three events of the inaugural Festival of Speed competition. The two assistants did an excellent job learning the ropes over the course of the three events and an additional midweek training session - congratulations!

The PPAC team would like to extend a very special all round thank you this week to all who have helped including those who contributed valuable donations, ensuring that this and future events can continue to be organised to the standard expected and equally importantly so that PPAC can keep welcoming participants from all backgrounds and abilities.

© PPAC 2021