Wednesday August 1, 2012
Last run on Penang Bridge
By ANDREA FILMER
andrea@thestar.com.my
GEORGE TOWN: For those marathoners who have yet to experience running on the Penang Bridge, you have only one more opportunity to do so this November.
Come next year, the annual Penang Bridge International Marathon will move to a new site — the spanking new second Penang bridge.
Penang Tourism Development and Culture Committee chairman Danny Law said that holding the marathon on the new bridge, which will be 10.5km longer than the first bridge, would eliminate several traffic problems faced by the organisers.
“The second bridge (24km long) will be long enough to host an entire 42km full marathon.
“Because of this, we won’t have to close the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway to traffic and vehicles can still use the first bridge during the marathon,” Law said in an interview.
Currently, the marathon start/finish point is at Queensbay Mall, with runners advancing onto the 13.5km Penang Bridge before making a U-turn and head back to the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway.
Law said that starting November 2013, runners would start the race on the Batu Maung side of the second bridge before heading to the Batu Kawan end.
“We will be introducing a 5km-run category next year for those who want to take a nice stroll on the new bridge.
“We understand that the bridge can comfortably accommodate 50,000 participants, so it will be no problem to cater for a large influx of runners,” he said.
The RM4.5bil second Penang bridge, which will be the longest in South-East Asia, is reported to be some two months ahead of schedule from its Sept 8 completion date.
On the Allianz Penang Bridge International Marathon 2012, which will take place on Nov 18, Law said the response had been very good.
“To date, we have almost reached 20,000 registered runners and expect to hit 35,000 when registration closes on Oct 15,” Law said, adding that 27,500 runners participated in the marathon last year.
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