Hong Le and Anh Khoi Win, Set Course Records at Hanoi Techcombank International Marathon Season 5

Hanoi — At dawn on October 4, the fifth season of the Hanoi Techcombank International Marathon started around Hoan Kiem Lake and wrapped up after hours of intense racing. In the flagship 42.195 km event, Pham Thi Hong Le took the women's title in 2:50:41, setting a new course record, while Huynh Anh Khoi won the men's race in 2:29:58, closing a morning the organisers described as the most successful season yet in both scale and quality. It is important to draw a clear line at the outset: the records mentioned here are records of the event itself, not national records and certainly not world records. The women's marathon world record stands at roughly 2:09:56, and the men's at about 2:00:35. The gap between Hong Le's mark and the world's best is more than 40 minutes, while Anh Khoi's gap is around 29 minutes. That places both winners firmly in the recreational-elite band — strong amateurs and semi-professionals — rather than in the elite international tier. In the women's race, the podium featured Hong Le first, Doan Thi Oanh second, and Marta Tinsae Birehan of Ethiopia third. In the men's race, Huynh Anh Khoi took first, Tesfaye Keress of Ethiopia second, and Dang Anh Quyet, born in 2026, third. The fact that the invited internationals finished second and third rather than winning suggests this year's guest field was mid-tier — brought in to raise the competitive profile and prestige of the event rather than to dominate it. Beyond the marathon, the event also staged a half marathon, a 10 km and a 5 km, creating a four-distance structure that caters to a wide range of participants. In the half marathon, Japan's Saeki Makino won, a result that reflects that country's deep road-running culture. The presence of Japanese and Ethiopian runners alongside thousands of mass participants shows the event is fundamentally a community race, with an elite layer sitting on top of a very large participatory base. According to the organisers, the fifth season drew around 15,000 runners, the largest field in the event's history. That is a notable milestone for a road race in Southeast Asia, a region where the running movement has been growing rapidly in recent years. The rise in entries reflects not only urban demand for health and fitness but also the growing maturity of Vietnam's race-organising ecosystem. This year's course again passed many of the capital's landmarks: Hoan Kiem Lake, the Flag Tower, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Old Quarter, Long Bien Bridge, the Nhat Tan area, Dong Tru Bridge and the Red River dike. It is a course with enormous promotional value, but it also poses technical challenges, with undulating sections and changing road surfaces. Analysts note that a course with many landmarks, turns and gradients will inevitably produce slower times than an ideal flat circuit. Weather is another factor. Hanoi in early October is typically hot and humid — unfavourable for marathon running. Heat and humidity raise heart rate, accelerate dehydration and make it harder for runners to hold target pace. Over more than 42 km, a few minutes of environmental penalty is entirely plausible. Still, it must be said plainly: a gap of over 40 minutes to the women's world record, or nearly 30 minutes on the men's side, cannot be explained by weather or terrain alone. That is a gap in performance level, not in conditions. Among the notable figures, Dang Anh Quyet stood out for the race tactics he described afterwards. He said his initial aim was to stay in the leading group of five, then to accelerate in the closing kilometres as rivals slowed and secure a podium place. This is a feel-based, experience-driven approach typical of a mature road runner. At 34–35, Quyet is in the mature phase of a marathon career, when endurance peaks but absolute speed begins to decline slightly. He also said he wanted to slow down at points to take in the city — a detail that reflects a runner whose identity is tied to experience and community as much as to performance. That outlook fits the nature of a mass-participation race, where value lies not only in finish times but in the journey and the atmosphere of the event. On the organisational side, the expo and bib collection ran for three days and drew more than 40,000 visitors. That figure shows the event has outgrown a single morning of racing to become a multi-day cultural, sporting and commercial occasion. The experience zone included health care, technology applications and interactive activities aimed at runners and their families alike. This structure is the classic business model of a modern mass race, with revenue coming from entry fees, sponsorship and associated commercial activity. The event is operated by a professional race-management company working with a major Vietnamese commercial bank as title sponsor. The pairing of an internationally experienced event organiser with a domestic financial brand has produced a model that can be replicated in other Vietnamese cities. Several brands within the title sponsor's ecosystem also appeared throughout the expo, indicating a relatively high concentration of commercial activity around one sponsor group. On safety and logistics, the organisers emphasised investment in medical services, hydration and on-course support. With 15,000 participants, this is critical. In hot, humid conditions, the risks of heat stress, dehydration and overuse injury are real, particularly for less experienced amateur runners. International experience shows that medical provision and heat warnings are two indispensable pillars for outdoor races in Southeast Asia. In a broader context, the results of Hong Le and Anh Khoi accurately reflect the state of Vietnamese road running: the movement is growing strongly in numbers, but elite performance depth remains thin. Only a handful of standout names exist in each discipline, while the gap to countries with strong road-running traditions such as Japan and Ethiopia remains very large. The fact that invited internationals finished second and third, rather than winning by a wide margin, shows the organisers are balancing two goals: creating a winning narrative for domestic runners while adding international flavour. One technical point deserves attention: the validity of the term "record". For a road race, a record only carries international reference value when the course is measured and certified to standard and the event sits within the world athletics classification system. Without such certification, the mark remains a fine milestone for the event but carries no global comparison. Information on the certification status of this year's course has not been clearly published. Similarly, anti-doping testing at mass-participation races is typically limited to podium finishers or professional competitors, if it happens at all. At this tier, testing transparency is not as high as in major-label events. This is not an accusation but a structural feature of a community sports product, where commercial and social value far outweighs elite performance value. Socially, the race has become an effective promotional event for the capital. Images of thousands of runners crossing Long Bien Bridge, running along the Red River dike or circling Hoan Kiem Lake at sunrise generate strong media impact, attract visitors and spread an active lifestyle. This is a path many major regional cities are pursuing, turning mass sport into a tool for urban branding. Looking ahead, the organisers have expressed an intention to sustain and expand the event over at least the next five seasons. Given current growth, further expansion is likely. Yet alongside rising numbers, the biggest challenge is raising competitive quality: improving the course, attracting stronger international guests and creating conditions for Vietnamese runners to close the gap with regional standards. In short, season five of the Hanoi Techcombank International Marathon was a success in scale, organisation and media value. The records set are event records, in the strong recreational-elite band, tens of minutes away from world class. That does not diminish the event — it simply places it correctly: Vietnam's largest community race, where athletic performance is one part of a wider story about health, city image and the growth of the national running movement.