Athletes from Kenya swept both the men's and women's titles as well as the silver and bronze awards in the men's division.

Outgoing Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou took part in the marathon again this year and helped raise funds for charities. Ma is leaving his post at the end of this month.

Mayor-elect Hau Lung-bin and John Wylie, ING Antai's chief executive officer, kicked off the annual event shooting off the starting gun.

Defending champion Luke Kibet from Kenya retained the men's title by finishing the 42.195-km marathon with a time of 2:11:05, setting a new record for the ING Taipei event. This was the second time that he broke a record during the event.

His fellow countrymen Stephen Comar and Julius Sugut took second and third places in the men's race with 2:11:50 and 2:12:32 respectively.

Meanwhile, Jane Auro also retained the women's title with a time of 2:30:56, representing another new women's record for the event. Zimbabwe's runner Pabiha Tsatsa came in second in 2:32:09.

Kibet and Auro each received a cash prize of NT$1 million (US$30,769) for finishing the event in record time.

More than 111,000 people signed up for the various activities arranged for the 2006 marathon jointly sponsored by the Taipei city government, ING Antai Insurance Co. and Chinese Taipei Road Running Association.

Over 90,000 runners competed for top prizes in different categories. At least 2,000 participants from abroad took part in the race for regular runners.

After winning the men's marathon title again, Kibet said both the weather and road conditions in Taipei were perfect and thus allowed him to break his own record.

Kibet, who works as a warder in Kenya, said he used the cash prize that he won in Taiwan last year to buy a piece of land on which he built a new house.

This year, with the NT$1 million prize, he said he plans to buy numerous pairs of new shoes for disadvantaged Kenyans.

For her part, Auro said she plans to use the NT$1 million prize money to continue the repair work on her own home.

Meanwhile, Cheng Tzu-chien successfully defended his title in "Taiwan men's division for the 42.195-km marathon with a time of 2:25:25, smashing both his personal record and the event's record.

Wu Wan-ling won the Taiwan women's title in the 42.195-km marathon with a time of 2:47:27, breaking her own record set in 2005.

Cheng and Wu each took home NT$100,000 in prize money.

Taipei Mayor Ma finished the nine-kilometer race in 54 minutes, shaving one minute off his finishing time in 2005.

His effort also won NT$100,000 donated by ING Antai for public interest drives.

Accompanying Ma were two Taipei deputy mayors -- Chin Pu-tsung and Chen Yu-chang.

Chin also won an ING Antai cash donation of NT$60,000 by finishing his half-marathon (21 km) with a time of 1:59:39, six minutes faster than his personal record in 2005. Chen finished the 21-km marathon with the same time as last year.

Mayor Ma said he will continue taking part in the marathon. He also expressed the hope that ING will continue backing the sport event in the future.

The ING Taipei international marathon race have unique and significant meanings for many sports fans.

For Chen Chien, 57, the event marked as the 100th marathon race he ever attended in both Taiwan and overseas.

Chen has so far given 260 blood donations and reached the top of 100 mountains exceeding 3,000 meters in Taiwan.