KARACHI: At least 4,000 people from all walks of life took part in an annual marathon event, accredited by the World Athletics and held in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi on Sunday, its organizer said. 

The event kicked off on Sunday morning from the city’s Nishan-e-Pakistan monument at Sea View. It featured five types of marathons, such as the Full Marathon (42.195km) the Half-Marathon (21.1 km), the Relay Marathon, a team of four participants for 42.2km (10.5km run, 10.5km run, 10.5km run, 10.5km run and the Fun Run, a 5 km run.

Athletes hailing from Poland, Germany, Japan and many others participated in the event, Sports in Pakistan, one of the organizers of the event, said in a press release. The marathon’s certification by the World Rankings Competition ensured a world-class experience for all participants, it added. 

“We are delighted with the overwhelming success of the Karachi Marathon 2025,” Shoaib Nizami, CEO of Sports in Pakistan, said. 

“The event has emerged as a testament to Karachi’s unwavering resilience and warm hospitality and we extend our sincerest gratitude to our participants, sponsors, and partners for their invaluable support.”

The top performers in each category were:

Marathon Category:

• Male Winner (1st Prize): Israr Muhammad (Pakistan) – Time: 2:30:13 won Rs. 500,000/
• Male Winner (2nd Prize): Muhammad Riaz (Pakistan) – 2:32:13 won Rs. 250,000/
• Female Winner (1st Prize): Enub Khan (Pakistan) – 3:47:49 won Rs. 500,000/
• Female Winner (2nd Prize): Uzma Abid (Pakistan) – 4:01:13 won Rs. 250,000/

Half Marathon Category:

• Male Winner (1st Prize): Muhammad Ajhtar (Pakistan) – Time: 1:12:08 won Rs. 50,000/
• Second Runner-up Male (2nd Prize): Qasim Bajwa (Pakistan) – 1:12:52 won Rs. 40,000/
• Female Winner (1st Prize): Mumtaz Naimat – 1:43:26 won Rs. 50,000/
• Second Runner-up Female (2nd Prize): Dua Nazakat (Pakistan) – 1:51:45 won Rs. 40,000/

The city saw its first-ever World Athletics-certified marathon last year in January 2024 where hundreds of people from all walks of life participated. 

DUBAI: French Algerian actress Sofia Boutella started the new year on a high note with the premiere of season two of the BBC series “SAS Rogue Heroes.”

“Happy New … SAS season 2 is out … and Happy New Year,” she wrote on Instagram this week, sharing on-set pictures of herself and her co-stars from the military drama, which chronicles the exploits of the British Army’s special forces unit.

Series two, created by Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”), picks up with British troops in the spring of 1943 during World War II.

Returning for the sequel are actors Jack O’Connell, Connor Swindells, Dominic West and Sofia Boutella, who reprises her role as French intelligence agent Eve Mansour.

Commissioned by the BBC, the show is based on Ben Macintyre’s best-selling book of the same name, with season two having been directed by Stephen Woolfenden.

Boutella most recently starred “The Killer’s Game,” which hit cinemas in September, and Netflix’s “Rebel Moon — Part 2: The Scargiver.”

In the sci-fi adventure — a sequel to last year’s “Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire” — a peaceful colony on the edge of a galaxy finds itself threatened by the armies of a tyrannical ruling force.

Kora, played by Boutella, has assembled a small band of warriors — outsiders, insurgents, peasants and orphans of war from different worlds.

Boutella drew on her history as an immigrant. She grew up in Algeria during its civil war and later moved to France and found herself navigating the complexities of adapting to a different culture.

“Having left Algeria young, when I go back there I don’t feel like I belong to Algeria. And then, in France, I don’t feel like I belong to France because I didn’t grow up there,” she told Arab News in a previous interview.

Boutella has learned to embrace her rootlessness, though. “I feel like I belong to this planet. I have the freedom to travel wherever I want, without any limitation,” she said. “But sometimes, I miss the proximity and attachment that people have to their country.”

Kora was not Algiers-born Boutella’s first role as a sword-wielding extraterrestrial. The actress, who at the age of 10 fled to Paris with her family during the Algerian civil war, is known for her breakout performance in the Oscar-nominated film, “Star Trek Beyond,” in which she portrayed the fierce alien warrior, Jaylah.