Dubai: Over 20,000 runners are expected to participate in the Dubai Marathon to be held on January 16, 2009.

Owing to heavy demand for registration, the organisers have extended the deadline for registration to December 31.

Speaking to Gulf News, Ahmad Al Kamali, the event’s general co?ordinator, said: “The participation in the Dubai marathon will break all previous records. Already 1,500 runners from different parts of the world have registered for the marathon. This is double the number than in previous years.”

Al Kamali also revealed that more runners will participate in the 10km and 3km events too. “Over 5,000 runners have registered for the 10km event and 3000 in the 3km events,” he said. “The participation is likely to rise because a lot of school and college children [are] wanting to take part this time.”

For the first time, the Ministry of Education has issued a circular to all educational institutions inviting students to take part in the event.

“This has resulted in heavy registration in many centres and that has forced us to even extend the deadline,” said Al Kamali, who is also the president of the UAE Athletics Federation. “The 3km family event is also expected to have unprecedented participation”.

The registrations are open to all till 31st December and one can register online at http://www.dubaimarathon.org/howToRegister.html? 

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