Despite complaining of testing conditions in a foreign land and nursing a slight leg injury, Cambodian long distance runner Ma Viro achieved a personal best time of 3 hours, 7 minutes and 3 seconds at the 2012 Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon on Sunday.

 “What I can do in competition has changed a little bit, improving on my old time,” said Ma Viro after returning home yesterday morning.

“But I want to note that I found it so difficult at the arena in Hong Kong city, especially running uphill at a lot of sections, which is very different from the [Olympic Stadium] running track in Cambodia.

It was not only me that couldn’t do my best, but also other top Asian and European runners who could not get good times.”

However, the Cambodian was still delighted to complete the course and honour his backers at the Khmer Amateur Athletics Federation.

Ethiopian runner Dereje Abera Ali won the event in a time of 2:11:27.