Over 10,000 brave wet Kuching Marathon 2019

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Tired but spirited runners navigate the streets of Kuching towards the finish line.

KUCHING: Despite haze blanketing parts of Sarawak in recent weeks, the much-hyped 2019 Kuching Marathon took off early yesterday morning with a record 10,681 participants, breaching the 10,000 mark yet again for the third year.

Since its debut in 2014, the number of runners taking part in this internationally accredited marathon event, offering RM100,000 in prize money, has increased two-fold in five short years.

Starting at Padang Merdeka in the heart of the state capital, the full marathon (42km) was flagged off at 1am by Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, Minister of Local Government and Housing Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian and Kuching City North Commission (DBKU) Datuk Bandar Datuk Bandar Datuk Abang Abdul Wahap Abang Julai.

The half marathon (21km) was started off by Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Chong Chieng Jen at 4am.

Abang Abdul Wahap returned to wave off the 10km race at 5.30am while major sponsor Isuzu Malaysia chief operating officer Masayuki Suzuki did the honours for the 5km event at 6.30am.

Speaking to reporters after the flag off Abdul Karim commended the organisers for staging the international standard marathon and attracting overwhelming response.

“We are very happy that Kuching is able to host this international marathon which we hope can be a big boost for the local tourism industry because we do know that many of the runners who participated in the marathon came from many countries,” said Abdul Karim.

A sudden downpour did not dampen the spirit of participants as thousands charged past the starting line once the air horns were blasted.

Several roads along the routes of the marathon were also closed as early as 11.30pm on Saturday to facilitate race logistics.

Participants ran a route dotted with iconic landmarks depicting Kuching city’s cultural heritage including Fort Margherita, 1920s Chinese shophouses along Padungan Road, the golden coloured State Legislative Assembly Building across Sarawak River and the new Sarawak Museum Complex.

Over 1,000 of the runners were from different corners of the world such as Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam and Yemen.

Sarawakians made up 7,345 of the total with 829 from Sabah, 219 from Johor, 527 from Selangor and 366 from Kuala Lumpur.

The 1,000-strong volunteers comprised college students, People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela), uniformed groups, government departments, medical personnel, army and traffic police.