Tokyo Marathon 2008 Festival

At the invitation of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Embassy of Malaysia Club (The Club) participated in the Tokyo Marathon 2008 Festival which was held as a side event of the Tokyo Marathon 2008 on Sunday, 17 February 2008. The venue of the festival was Tokyo Big Sight, Odaiba which also served as the finishing line to the marathon runners.

A total of 23 embassies took part in the festival, with Malaysia as the only ASEAN member country.

Braving the chill weather that hovered between 5° and 10° Celcius, members of The Club took turns to sell Malaysian processed foodstuffs to locals and foreign visitors alike. Lingham Chili Sauce and Boh Songket Tea were among the popular buy. Promotional brochures and items supplied by Tourism Malaysia in Tokyo and MATRADE in Tokyo were also on display.

The Tokyo Marathon 2008 Festival was also an event of festivities with all-day dance, music and art performances by Tokyo citizens from different age groups.

The Tokyo Marathon 2008 itself as one of the largest marathons in Asia saw a participation of 30,000 runners from all over the world. A Swiss runner, Viktor Rothlin completed the race in 2 hours 7 minutes and 23 seconds in first place after staving off stiff challenge from Arata Fujiwara of Japan and Julius Gitahi of Kenya who ended up in second and third place, respectively. The women?s race was won by Claudia Dreher of Germany in 2 hours 35 minutes and 35 seconds.