PHNOM PENH ATHLETICS CLUB

Excellent turnout for the regular PPAC 5km road race. Humid conditions after an overnight downpour did nothing to stop a high level contest at the front of the race between Andarge and first-time 5k road racer Nicolas. Close right until the final lap Andarge edged ahead finishing with a 5k PB of 17:03 and a big PPAC points record of 884.4, crossing the line 20s ahead of Nicolas who scored an impressive 832.3 points first time out. Two female athletes finished in the top six, both scoring over 500 points, pointing to a really strong mixed showing. Further down the field Leonardo put in the second most consistent performance and fought back excellently with a 9.7s final lap negative split to recover two places overall. There were three 5k PBs for athletes with previously recorded times and two points PBs. In a 'first timer!' for Phnom Penh Athletics Club we were joined by our first international virtual participant, Alexander, who ran 22:22 around the Bukit Jalil National Stadium...

We had two closely matched heats in our second urban 400m race of the year after the CNTR 400m race in early February. In the first heat Hugo ducked under 60s to win by just 0.63s to record a new PB of 59.49s and set a huge PPAC points PB, beating his previous best by over 110 and join the 600+ club for a score of 660.4 points. A small difference of just over half a second still worked out to a 27 point gap between 1st and 2nd. The second heat was even closer, with Leonardo leading by 0.03s at the half-way mark but Jack overturning the deficit at the finish line to edge to the heat win and fourth place overall by just 0.31s. Leonardo and Yin Ling both set new 400m PBs and Leonardo beat his Points record. Performances were very consistent overall, with an average positive 200m split of just +3.8%, but well under 1% for the top two finishers (possibly indicating a conservative starting pace or strong finishing).         For the second event of the morning, with only 5...

One of our favourite events is back after being successfully trialed for the first time fifteen events ago at Koh Pich. We've got a new location and a slightly shorter course and after applying some minor tweaks to the rules we were all set for the second edition of the endurance elimination race.   The general idea is that everyone will run laps and at the end of each lap, the last people will be eliminated until a final lap showdown between the two remaining runners. The race is broken down into eight rounds of seven laps separated by a short rest and there are bonus points available for winning a lap and winning the round as well as for completing laps and not being eliminated. Everyone can participate with all runners expected to complete a minimum of 4km and up to 14.5km if winning every round. The more people that take part, the more fun it is - please contact us for more detailed information about the rules if you'd like to know more about this exciting race format! Ove...

  A slightly earlier start this week, however, conditions were already warm and more humid than usual with a medium headwind around the bottom curve of the course. We also welcomed two more first timers. Despite the conditions a dominant performance from Andarge with a PB of 10:09 saw him finish comfortably 28 seconds ahead of Neil in second place. Yin Ling rounded out the top three in a PB of 12:51. Overall we had three PBs for athletes with existing 3k times and two points PBs for non-first timers.

On the occasion of this week's 5km road race we bid farewell to Phnom Penh Athletics Club founder Martin Kendrik. After racing or hosting 57 PPAC events and following a long and slow recovery from injury Martin was ready to reach for two personal landmarks in his last event - a sub-20 minute 5k PB and break the 500 PPAC point barrier for the first time. We also welcomed two more first timers. With Neil and James for company the three runners set a consistent pace from start to finish and final sprint push from Martin saw him over the line two seconds inside the target for a 5k PB and personal best PPAC score of 502.6 points. This week's overall winner was Yin Ling with 560 points, her 21:52 time scoring 42 more points than Neil who crossed the line first in 19:49. Martin also topped the consistency, oxygen consumption and fitness factor rankings this week.

Welcome back to the first PPAC event following our break after the end of Cambodia's Next Top Runner 2021. Some of PPAC's members took part in a very fun trail run the previous week so we put on a shorter event to get back into the swing of road racing for the year's calendar ahead. The Sokha Lap race consists of one lap of the Sokha Hotel and surrounding undeveloped grassland which makes a loop of approximately 2.14 km. Every time we hold a race here, be it 3, 5 or 10 km, we attempt to record athletes' lap times and to date 154 different individuals have recorded at least one lap time registered in the Sokha Lap leaderboard. The single Sokha Lap race is the best opportunity for breaking the course record or climbing the leaderboard with a PB. The race is run with a rolling staggered handicap-style start to give the best chance of a fast time and to generate more racing action at the finish line as the fastest runners catch the earlier starters over the course of the r...

photos courtesy of Alvie Kendrik and Neil Bianchi PPAC’s first sprint event and athletes match Paralympic qualifying times Athletes take to the start line for heat 1 of the 100m PPAC teamed up this week with the Paralympic athletes to organise a fun sprint session at the track. This was the first time that PPAC has done a 100 or 200m race, so it was great preparation for the upcoming CNTR 2020 final where participants will compete at the same sprint distances. Participants clapping as the event comes to a close You can see all the photos from the event on our Facebook page The 100m para heat gets underway In total we had 23 athletes competing overall, including CNTR athletes, guests and para-athletes including five wheelchair athletes in a record-equalling turnout for a PPAC-organised track event. The wheelchair athletes line up for the 100m with guest starter, international sprinter, Sokong After warming up we gathered the athletes and headed to the 20...