Tarus and Mutati pose for the camera during the interview after the prize presentation.
KOTA SAMARAHAN (May 13): The Samarahan Marathon 2024 is hailed as a success, having welcomed over 2,000 participants coming not only from Malaysia, but also from Singapore, Brunei and the African region.
The two-day event, which kicked off Saturday, was a joint collaboration between Hock Seng Lee Bhd (HSL), City Joggers Club and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas).
HSL executive director Simon Lau in a statement yesterday expressed the group’s pride in supporting such a significant event for the Kuching-Samarahan region.
“The enthusiastic turnout highlights Samarahan’s potential as a vibrant community hub.
“We also take note that longer distance categories of 42km and 21km have ‘outsold’ the shorter 10km category – a delightful surprise, and also a tremendous encouragement to us.
“The marathon has garnered widespread approval from both seasoned athletes and newcomers,” he expressed.
The festival kicked off with engaging 3km and 6km ‘Fun Run’ events on Saturday, with special recognition bestowed upon Voon Kim Choon for the imaginative costumes that spread joy among the participants.
Offering a total of RM60,000 in the prize pool, the marathon held the full distance (42km) and half-distance (21km) events for open and veteran categories for both men and women, as well as an open 10km mini-marathon.
Kenyans came out tops in the open full marathon with Lukas Mutati recording an impressive time of 02:42.47 to win the men’s division; and Dorcas Tarus clocking 03:27.13 to emerge victorious in the women’s division.
“Running a marathon is like running for your life; it’s not easy and you have to keep running. We (including other participants from Kenya) are accustomed to cool weather, versus here where it is warm and humid.
“This makes the marathon becomes much tougher to us; still, when the marathon goes tough, we go tougher.
“Kuching has transformed itself into a running city, and I’m actually surprised because many people are genuinely interested in it, willing to sacrifice their sleep just to participate,” Mutati, 39, told The Borneo Post when met after the prize-presentation yesterday.
According to him, marathon is very important in Kenya not just as a sport, but also as a career and means to support communities, especially the children.
“In this respect, I call upon Malaysians to always prioritise health,” he added.
Meanwhile, Tarus, 38, described the Samarahan Marathon ‘enjoyable’.
“We felt that we performed well. The organisation was excellent, making it a pleasant race overall. My future plan after this competition is simple – to continue running, and winning,” she smiled.
All 42km and 21km participants who completed their routes each received a medal of participation, a finisher’s T-shirt and an e-Certificate, while those who went past the finish line for the 10km mini-marathon were each given a medal of participation and an e-Certificate.
Booths offering food and beverages were also set up at HSL’s La Promenade Mall.
Minister for Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah presented the prizes yesterday.
Also present were Kota Samarahan Municipal Council chairman Dato Peter Minos and Next Phase Sdn Bhd director Yu Ji.