Two Vietnamese athletes will compete in the fourth and final leg of this year’s Greatest Race on Earth 2008/09 (GROE) marathon to be held on Sunday February 8 in Hong Kong by Standard Chartered Bank.

Pham Thi Hien, 22, who took gold at the 2008 National Marathon Championship, says she’s determined to shorten the cumulative time for her team.

“I had set a hard training schedule before the race and promise to run my best to keep the team’s record in the top three in the region,” Hien said.

Nguyen Dang Duc Bao, 25, the GROE winner of the last two series, says he’ll use his valuable experience to push his team to a good position.

Coach Hoang Thi Huyen Nga said, “The 29 minute time difference from Sri Lanka, the third-ranked team in South Asia, is very difficult to take over but Bao will use all his determination to help Vietnam’s men’s team rank higher.”

Initiated in 2004 by Standard Chartered Bank, GROE includes four marathons in Nairobi, Singapore, Mumbai and Hong Kong.

Reflecting the global make-up of the event, the men’s and women’s challenges are split into three regions including Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and North East Asia and Rest of The World (ROTW).

For the first time, the event has partnered with Seeing is Believing (SiB), a global initiative which tackles avoidable blindness. In addition, 78 Standard Chartered staff teams are participating as well as a visually impaired (VI) “All-Stars” team.

Paralympic athlete Qi Shun of China, who won the T12 gold medal at the 2008 Olympics, will be running the final leg of the marathon race for the VI All-Stars.

SiB, a collaborative partnership between Standard Chartered Bank and the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), has raised $17 million to date and aims to invest a further $20 million by 2014 into 20 underprivileged urban areas, to help 20 million people worldwide.

Standard Chartered Bank has pledged to match every dollar raised.

Reported by Vinh Bao