Award-winning Great Eastern Women's Run is one for all females to enjoy

Great Eastern Women's Run participants running past the Singapore Flyer in last year's event, which won the Best Local Sports Event of the Year (Local) at this year's Singapore Sports Awards.
Great Eastern Women's Run participants running past the Singapore Flyer in last year's event, which won the Best Local Sports Event of the Year (Local) at this year's Singapore Sports Awards. ST FILE PHOTO

The worlds of sports and fashion will blend into one at this year's Great Eastern Women's Run (GEWR), South-east Asia's first all-women half marathon.

Apart from the 21km, 10km and 5km categories, the popular Princess Dash, which made its debut last year, will return during the Nov 13 event, which will flag off at The Float@Marina Bay.

The event will see girls aged three to nine sprint for 100m alongside their mothers and being crowned with a "Finishers' Tiara" at the finish line.

Another popular item returning to this year's GEWR programme is the "Don a tutu for a cause" initiative.

For a minimum donation of $5 to the event's beneficiaries - the Breast Cancer Foundation and the Women's Health Research and Education Fund - runners will receive a tutu in the beneficiaries' colours and are encouraged to don them on race day.

"As a life company, Great Eastern has long been a strong proponent of empowering women to live healthy and our annual run is one of the key platforms which we harness to reach out to women of all ages and all walks of life," said Keith Chia, Great Eastern's head of brand and customer experience.

The run, now in its 11th year, opens for registration on Monday at 12pm. It attracted a record 17,000 participants last year, and was named "Best Local Sports Event of the Year (Local)" at the Singapore Sports Awards 2016.

And there is to be one more surprise for participants this year.

GEWR will partner with local fashion label Klarra to produce an exclusive scarf. The proceeds of which will go to the run's two beneficiaries.

"As a label for the modern women, we believe strongly in female empowerment," said Beatrice Tan, founder of Klarra, who also designed the scarf.

"We're absolutely thrilled to be working with the Great Eastern Women's Run, one of Singapore's most iconic all-women event. I'm looking forward to sharing my design for the limited edition scarf and give back to the community at the same time."

Interested participants can register at www.greateasternlife.com/greateasternwomensrun from Aug 1.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 30, 2016, with the headline Award-winning Great Eastern Women's Run is one for all females to enjoy. Subscribe