Records tumbled at the 5th Laguna Phuket International Marathon today, with the event’s biggest-ever field of over 4,600 entrants competing in sweltering conditions at Southeast Asia’s fun run in paradise.
Despite the heat, it was a record-breaking day with a carnival atmosphere in Phuket. For the first time in the history of the destination race, the top five full marathoners all finished in under three hours — and four of these were from Thailand.
"Hats off to all runners who finished the races today," said Raimund Wellenhofer, Course Director for the event. Runners were very disciplined, and knew how to pace themselves and stayed hydrated as temperatures soared."
Making his debut at the Laguna event, Thailand’s own Charkrit Boonkong, stole the full marathon crown from two-time defending champion Stephen Paine of Australia.
Boonkong pulled away from Paine at the 17km mark and held a 40 second lead which gradually increased to two minutes over the next ten kilometres as the sun rose and the temperatures began to soar. Boonkong finished in 2:40:08, one minute outside of the course record set by the Aussie champ in 2008.
In the women’s race, Thailand took the crown with Thanyathorn Samutnoi setting a new women’s record of 3:21:24, maintaining a 30 second lead over fellow Thai athlete Amnuay Kiamgoolearn from start to finish. Japanese and British runners rounded out the top five women.
Source: Phuket Marathon
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