Dubai: Online registrations for the 2006 Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon have seen a threefold increase over 2005 registrations.
This has been for both international and local competitors in the 42km Dubai Marathon, the 10km Road Race and the 3km Charity Run, according to the marathon organisers.
"This is profound," said Event Director, Peter Connerton.
"In our entire race history, half to three-quarters of race registrations arrive in the final two weeks.
"With almost a month still to go before the 2006 race, we expect even more runners to lodge online as well as register in each of the Standard Chartered Bank's ten branches across the UAE and our dedicated Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon booth at the Mall of the Emirates."
Runners from across the world will line up at the Dubai World Trade Centre on January 6 in the emirate's first major community and sporting initiative of the year.
"The Dubai race has come of age, thanks in no small part to Standard Chartered and its global network of Marathons where world ranking athletes race alongside local competitors," said Connerton.
Standard Chartered sponsors marathons in Singapore, Nairobi, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Lahore and Dubai, as well as the collective Greatest Race on Earth four marathons rolled into one epic contest starting in the altitudes of Nairobi a world away from the finish line in down-town Hong Kong.
