4,000 athletes to compete in mountain marathon in Lao Cai
The 2019 Vietnam Mountain Marathon will take place in Sa Pa town in the northwestern province of Lao Cai on September 21 and 22.
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| At the previous edition of the Vietnam Mountain Marathon |
As many as 4,000 athletes from 46 countries and territories, including host Vietnam, will compete in various race distances of the event’s seventh edition, ranging from 10km to 100km.
Notably, the marathon will also attract the participation of champion of the 2018 Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc in Europe Francesca Canepa and winner of the 100km race of the Vietnam Mountain Marathon last year Nguyen Tien Hung.
Founded in 2013 by Topas Travel, the event is one of the biggest ultra-marathon events in Asia and a landmark event in Southeast Asia. This year, it records a rise of 18 percent in the number of registrations compared to the 2018 edition.
The 100km race will begin at 9pm on September 20, with the participants running through the night up some of the highest peaks in Vietnam.
On September 21, the runners in the 70km, 42km, and 21km contests will join them for a race through spectacular rice terraces and ethnic minority villages.
The race finish line is the Topas Ecolodge, which was voted no.1 on the National Geographic list of places to stay if you care about the environment in 2017.
The Vietnam Mountain Marathon also has a strong charitable focus with thousands of dollars donated to good causes since 2013. This year, over 1 billion VND (43,000 USD) will be donated to local projects operated by Operation Smile and Newborns Vietnam to help support health amongst newborn babies.
To date, the Vietnam Trail Series launched by Topas Travel has raised more than 250,000 USD for projects of the two organisations and charitable programmes in localities of the race.