PHNOM PENH ATHLETICS CLUB

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 stronge...

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 ...

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 bo...

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 f...