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