KATHMANDU: Canada's Curry Wallace and Nepal's Laxmi Magar won the first ever Waling 100: International Open Mountain Biking Marathon, in the male and female categories respectively, thus concluding the first-of-its-kind cycling event on Saturday. The event was organised by Wonderful Wailing Tourism Development Organisation.

Wallace completed the 100-kilometre marathon held in Waling Municipality in six hours, 20 minutes and 58 seconds. In the female category, Laxmi Magar occupied the first position by completing the race in eight hours, nine minutes and 23 seconds.

The trail which was designed to be one of the toughest one-day mountain bike events in the world had a total ascent of 4,000 metres.

Dinkar Nepal, organiser of the event, expressed his happiness as the marathon was successfully held without any disruption. "The marathon was smoothly conducted and we have received a very good response from the athletes as well," he said. He also shared his eagerness to conduct such events in future.

Twenty-seven athletes competed in the event of which 21 were male and six female. Among the participants, three were international athletes, five of them were from the Nepal Police, and three were from Nepal Armed Police Force.

Dilip Khand, Mayor of Waling Municipality congratulated the organisers for conducting the marathon. "Such kind of races not only promote cultural tourism, they can also be a hub to attract more tourists," he added. He said that the marathon will be held annually and the municipality will focus on promoting the tourism and hospitality industry for sustainability of such events.

In the same competition, Harka Bahadur Lama was the runner-up in the male category. Similarly, Soni Gurung won the second position in the female category.

Wallace was awarded an amount of NPR 500,000 whereas Laxmi Magar received NPR 300,000.