SriLankan Airlines, the award-winning carrier, supported an international sports event – the Addu Marathon – on Gan Island where it recently celebrated three years of operations. The airline provided sponsorship for return air tickets from Mumbai to the Maldives and a cash prize.
Mr. Fawzan Fareid, SriLankan’s Country Manager Maldives, said: “SriLankan has supported many initiatives of the government of Maldives over several decades and helped build a strong relationship between the two South Asian neighbours of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. We are pleased to have supported a sports event, especially since our airline has a long tradition of organising and assisting international events in many sports, both in Sri Lanka and the countries that we operate to.”
The Addu Marathon, held for the third year, was organized by Addu City Council and runners as one of several races that are part of Marathon Maldives. The marathon took place from 5–7 December, a few days after the airline celebrating three years of operations to Gan Island with a free medical camp for the public in many atolls around the island.
The Addu Marathon consisted of a 100-kilometre run, a Full Marathon, Half Marathon, 10 k run, 5 k run and a Fun Run. The highlight of this year’s event was introducing the 100 k ultra-marathon first time into the Maldives. The course was quite picturesque, on the white sandy beaches, blue lagoons and palm trees of the atoll. The theme of this year’s marathon was to raise awareness on the need to protect the coral reef and reduce plastic pollution of the oceans.
Ahmed Shamoon Shameem was crowned Marathon Men’s Champion with Husna Mohamed the Marathon Women’s Champion. Satyendra Singh was the Half Marathon Men’s Champion and Mariyam Maushoodha the Half Marathon Women’s Champion. The 10K Men’s Champion was Abdhulla Nihash Rasheed and the 10K Women’s Champion Aishath Nafha Nasheed, while the 5K Men’s Champion was Mohamed Jaush and the 5K Women’s Champion Aishath Nafha Nasheed. Four runners completed the gruelling 100K Ultra Marathon namely Ahmed Athif, Lal Bahadur, Ibrahim Saaid Ali and Mohamed Athif Ibrahim.
SriLankan serves both the Maldivian capital Male and Gan Island, connecting them through Colombo with its network of 130 cities in 58 countries. A member of the prestigious Oneworld global airline partnership, SriLankan also connects travellers to over 1,000 cities in 160 countries through its OneWorld partner airlines.
The airline has been consistently winning prestigious accolades, including ‘Leading International Airline’ in South Asia and ‘Leading Airline Passenger Class – Business’ award, both for the second consecutive year at the South Asian Travel Awards 2019 (SATA); ‘Best Marketing Innovation’ award from APEX; two awards at the World Travel Awards 2018 Asia and Australasia; ‘Best Full-Service Airline in Central & South Asia’ at the Future Travel Experience Asia Awards; and ‘Innovation in Commercial Airline Cabins’ at the In-flight Asia Pacific Awards.
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