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PH to host Asian OCR Championships

The top officials from para sports and obstacle course racing team up in organizing the 2019 Asian OCR Championships. Ivan Saldajeno
By Ivan Saldajeno

MANILA--Close to 200 obstacle course runners from 10 countries will participate in the 2019 Asian OCR Championships that will take place at the Quirino Grandstand on Sunday.

Racers from Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Guam, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Marianas, and Vietnam look to give the local obstacle runners a run for their money in three separate categories.

"There will be three events, the 100-meter run with 10 obstacles, the five-kilometer run with 20 obstacles, and the 400-meter team event--team relay and team assist--with 12 obstacles," Agra bared the runs the participants will join in a press conference on Saturday at the Rizal Park Hotel.

The 5K run serves as the main attraction of the event since the result will impact the determination of the Philippine team that will compete in the inaugural OCR event of the Southeast Asian Games.

"They will run in waves," Agra added. "We will have the elite wave. Then we have the age-group waves--male and female--and then we have the open wave."

He also announced that the said event will also serve as a test event for the SEA Games since Malaysia, one of the three other countries that will join host country Philippines in the said event alongside Myanmar and Laos, will join.

However, the said event will coincide with the Metro Manila leg of the Milo Marathon, which usually takes Roxas Boulevard as part of the route.

But Agra assured that the Asian OCR Championships will not be in conflict with the Milo Marathon.

"Both events will proceed, and hopefully both events will succeed," he added.

Runners who wish to join the Asian OCR Championships, whether they joined the Milo Marathon too or not, can register on-site starting at 3 a.m. Sunday.

However, cutoff for the 5K race is at 6 a.m., while for the 100-meter obstacle run, the deadline is set at 9:30 a.m.

Follow him on Twitter: @IvanSaldajeno