PPAC-79 5km Road Race

This week we held our regular monthly 5K road race again and had a great turnout despite the public holiday. This was Phnom Penh Athletics Club's twentieth 5km road race and we welcomed three new athletes including the club's 300^th all time participant!

Conditions were dry but quite humid for the 11 athletes that toed the starting line and the race got underway just after 6 am.

Andarge and Neil led the race early, with a blistering pace around the park lap. The pace would prove unsustainable as both athletes settled into a more reasonable pace for the Sokha laps. The Men’s race was well contested in the middle pack with 3^rd through 6^th all finishing within one minute of each other and all under the 21-minute mark. Markus and Conrad battled out for 3^rd and 4^th which pushed Markus to set a new PB of 20:03. Matt and James also ran together the entire race, with Matt just holding out at the finish to beat James to the line by a few seconds.

In the women’s field, PPAC first-timer Elizabeth led from the buzzer and built a healthy lead that was never threatened. Irina ran with exceptional consistency and a negative split 2^nd > Sokha lap helped her set a new personal best in 36:42. In 3^rd place, first-timer Claire worked hard to finish and get the job done!

With the long-awaited return of Guillaume, we were happy to see some more French representation on the start line again in what was a particularly international race. Ten nations were represented in this week’s race which demonstrates the unique community of Phnom Penh Athletics Club.

Special thanks to this week's team of officials and helpers, club president Meyjou, with Seavmey, Seavleang and Kimkheang, and we sincerely thank athletes' generous contributions that help sustain and grow this athletics project. See you all soon at the next event!

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© PPAC 2021