Nguyen Trung Cuong won 4 consecutive half marathons

National athlete Nguyen Trung Cuong has won 4 half-marathons in 4 consecutive weeks - Photo: BTC

On the morning of April 20, the VnExpress Marathon Volvo All Star 2025 took place at Hoa Lac High-Tech Park (Hanoi) with nearly 2,000 athletes participating.

This is the first race in Vietnam dedicated to the 21km and 42km distances, requiring entry-level performance review, and has the largest total cash prize in Vietnam at 700 million VND. The overall first prize receives 100 million VND, the following prizes are 50, 40, 30 and 20 million VND.

After the competition, in the men's half marathon (21km), national athlete Nguyen Trung Cuong performed outstandingly, had no opponents from the start and finished with a time of 1 hour and 8 minutes.

It is worth mentioning that the runner born in 2000 won 4 half-marathons in 4 consecutive weeks.

And among them, Trung Cuong once surpassed the national record for the 21km distance with a time of 1 hour 6 minutes 17 seconds - faster than the 1 hour 6 minutes 39 seconds set by Hoang Nguyen Thanh in 2024. But Cuong's achievement has not been recognized because the tournament did not meet the conditions to recognize the national record.

In the women's 21km event, runner Nguyen Thi Oanh, who holds 5 national athletics records, easily finished with a time of 1 hour 18 minutes 28 seconds.

Currently, the runner born in 1995 holds a total of 5 national records in athletics, including: 5,000m (15 minutes 53.48 seconds), 10,000m (33 minutes 13.23 seconds), 3,000m steeplechase (9 minutes 43.83 seconds), half marathon (21km, 1 hour 15 minutes 10 seconds), and full marathon (42.195km, 2 hours 39 minutes 49 seconds).

Pham Thi Hong Le broke her personal record in hot weather conditions on the morning of April 20 in Hanoi - Photo: Organizing Committee

In the women's marathon (42km), despite the hot weather, female athlete Pham Thi Hong Le still achieved her best personal record when finishing with a time of 2 hours 44 minutes 47 seconds.

In the highly anticipated men's 42km event between Nguyen Van Lai and Edwin Kiptoo, the veteran Vietnamese runner surpassed his opponent for the second time when he finished in second place with a time of 2 hours 26 minutes 29 seconds. Meanwhile, Kiptoo finished third with a time of 2 hours 35 minutes 47 seconds.

In this event, another Kenyan runner, Kennedy Njogu Muhia, performed completely better than the rest when he quickly finished first with an impressive time of 2 hours 16 minutes 55 seconds - surpassing the Vietnamese men's marathon record of 2 hours 18 seconds 43 seconds set by Hoang Nguyen Thanh in January 2024.

Kenyan runner Kennedy Njogu Muhia achieved his best ever performance at a race held in Vietnam - Photo: Organizing Committee

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguyen-trung-cuong-vo-dich-4-giai-ban-marathon-lien-tiep-20250420112208128.htm