PRESS STATEMENT BY PENANG BRIDGE INTERNATIONAL MARATHON CHAIRMAN YB DANNY LAW HENG KIANG FOR PENANG BRIDGE INTERNATIONAL MARATHON 2010 OFFICIAL LAUNCH

This year, the much anticipated Penang Bridge International Marathon will be held on 21st November 2010. After successfully attracting 19,000 runners in last year's event, we hope to attract more than 20,000 participants to Penang Bridge International Marathon 2010.

In addition to that, I am happy to announce that we have opened a new category which is the10KM run for those above 18 years of age for the benefit of the runners to experience this event. Hopefully, this move is able to attract more runners to join us in this run.

In fact, we have just reached 10,000 runners and we are very excited as we prepare for more runners to register for the much awaited Penang Bridge International Marathon.

Right now, we are already in the middle of the promotion of registrations for the Penang Bridge International Marathon to secondary schools, colleges, companies and multi-national factories located throughout Penang. In order to encourage the schools to send their students to take part in this run, we will be rewarding the top 3 schools with the highest number of student participating with cash prizes RM1,000, RM800 and RM600. Other than that, we are also promoting the PBIM registration to regular runners and to the health conscious at the local exercising locations around Penang Island and the Mainland such as Mengkuang Dam, Cherok Tokun, Botanic Garden, Youth Park, Bukit Dumbar and Air Itam Dam on alternate dates.

Besides that, we fully urge for the corporate companies and multinational factories to sponsor their staff to join the run as a company activity which is able to promote our objective at the same time, which is – to make Penang a more health conscious city by participating in the Penang Bridge International Marathon, the biggest running event in Malaysia.

As estimated, 50 percent of the current registered PBIM runners are from outstation and overseas, therefore, we urge the runners to book their accommodations quickly because now, the hotels nearest to the event venue such as Eastin Hotel, B'Suite and Kristal Suite have already been fully booked.

I would say that one of the main reasons this run is so popular annually is because of the Grand Prize of the PBIM Lucky Draw, which is a BRAND NEW Proton Saga which manages to mainly attract the Fun Runners each year to join in the fun of running on the bridge and at the same time try their luck and stand a chance to win.

Finally, i wish to thank all the partners and sponsors for your involvement and support and for playing a big role in making this event a success. May this year be a bigger and more successful one for us all.

Thank you.