Bandar Seri Begawan - Some 5,000 participants have been confirmed for the Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam Charity Expedition for ALAF which is scheduled to take place next Sunday.

The total numbers of participants were announced by Hjh Nurul Akmar binti Hj Mohd Jaafar, the head of BIBD's Corporate Social Responsibility yesterday in a briefing about the expedition.

Among the agencies involved are Royal Brunei Police Force, HEART, RIPAS Hospital, JMPC, Brunei Amateur Athletics Association, members of the media as well as Cityneon, CE-ALAF's official logistics partner.

Charity Expedition for ALAF, or CE ALAF, is the first of its kind charity drive that gives local runners and cyclists the opportunity to play a major part in helping underprivileged children stay in school.

The ALAF programme, which is short for Advocating Life Long Learning for an aspiring Future is a BIBD CSR initiative that seeks to support the nation's aspiration to build a well-educated and highly-skilled human resource pool by providing opportunities of educational progression to underprivileged students. .

Hjh Nurul Akmar binti Hj Mohd Jaafar said, "Last year BIBD organised the charity expedition event to raise funds for Japanese Tsunami and a total of 1,120 people took part.

"This year, the BIBD Charity Expedition for ALAF received an overwhelming response of around 5,000 people."

During the briefing, it was informed that the race entry pack collection venue has been changed to the Orchid Garden Hotel. All the participants can collect their race entry packs from October 7 until 9 between 1.30pm to 8.30pm.

Tomorrow, one of CE-ALAF's supporters, GetFit CrossFit will be conducting a Crossfit demo and fitness clinic from 2pm to 5pm for members of the public especially registrants of CE-ALAF.

It will be held at the parking lot between Orchid Garden Hotel and the Anggerek Desa Swimming Pool.

The aim of the clinic is to demonstrate certain stretch and workouts which can be beneficial before going for a run or cycle.

During the actual day of BIBD Charity Expedition for ALAF, the 50km cycling will flag off at 6am followed by 21km runners flag-off at 6.15am.

The 10km will flag-off at 6.30am while 5km run will start at 6.45am. The 2.5km will start at 7am.

There will be 10 water stations set up along the route of the race and another four hydration stations will be established for cyclists.

More than four hundred volunteers and officials will be involved to make sure that the event runs smoothly.

Members of the public are invited to join the fun filled bazaar at the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium where both of Brunei's Olympians, Maziah and Ak Hafiy Tajuddin, will be on hand to meet the fans. Both Olympians are also expected to flag off some of the race events.

The event will feature five different sporting events namely 2.5km fun run, 5km run, 10km run, 21km half marathon and a 53 km cycling expedition.

The 10km run and the 21km half marathon are competitive races in which runners can win marathon packages to Melbourne, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu to further develop local runners' experience and talent.