Kuching Marathon Association

 

Kuching Marathon

KMA set to organize a Full Marathon in 2014

The long wait will finally be over

Yours truly was invited to a press conference by the Kuching Marathon Association today.  Suffice to say I was very excited at finding out the latest news on the possibility of an even longer run in Kuching.  The President of KMA, Mr Wong Chen Yi, announced that they are set to organize in the second half of 2014 a full marathon, the first for such an event in recent years.  It was unanimously decided in the Executive Committee Meeting of KMA held earlier this morning that the full marathon event by the name of "Kuching Marathon 2014" will also offer 21km, 10km and 5km categories.  In preparation for the this full marathon, Mr Philip Chua, KMA's Vice President has been appointed as Event Director of Kuching Marathon 2014 to head the organizing committee which will be set-up next month.  Mr Liew Tang Chieh, KMA's Secretary is the Deputy Event Director.  KMA will make an announcement to the general public regarding the details of the event including registration of the run and other administrative details soon.

More about KMA

Kuching Marathon Association (KMA) was approved by the Sports Commissioner of Sarawak under the Sports Development Act 1997 recently.  To date, this is the only sport body for running and marathon at divisional level established in Sarawak.  The main objectives of KMA, among others, are to act as the representative sport body of running and marathon at the divisional level of Kuching, to create awareness of the importance of rules and laws on the sport of marathon and running, to organize or assist in the organizing and hosting for such competitive sports, and to promote the development of the sport at the grassroots level through the establishment and acceptance of sport clubs as affiliate member.  KMA also hopes to act as a consultative body on all matters relating to sport and activities of running and marathon in the division of Kuching.

Mr Wong said that the setting up of this association is timely in view of the growing population of runners in Kuching as evident by the various running events held recently.  KMA will thus provide a platform to gather and pool the strength and resources of everyone towards building up a society of healthier life quality through running activities which is one of the simplest and convenient ways to exercise.  He further commented that the Executive Committee of KMA which consists of a pool of talents and volunteers from various sectors are very much well prepared and committed to contribute to the development of the sport of running and marathon for the community of Kuching City and its vicinity.

L-R: Philip Chua, Wong Chen YI, Jackie Chong and Liew Tang Chieh

My thoughts

It's about time! After the massive success of Spring Live Active Run 2013, I was so hoping for someone to come up with an even more challenging run.  42.195 km is the ultimate dream of the long distance runner.  Yours truly has already experienced it, and will continue to experience it, as I have signed up for several more FMs.  The fact that the joy of full marathon running will be coming to my hometown of Kuching makes running an FM here even more special.  I am sure many of my running buddies feel the same way to and will be counting the months, weeks and days before the big event happens.  What I do hope though is that this will be above all a fun running experience for everyone.  What better way to introduce the joys of running to our people then to showcase that runners actually are friendly and happy people.

Thank you KMA for finally making the move that will put Kuching on the running map in Malaysia.  We all know the Kenyans will be coming.  What would make it even more special is that our neighbours would come too.  Runners from Southeast Asia will now have another FM to put on their running calendar.  There will also be many more Sarawakian-born full marathoners.  Hopefully this will spur our local runners to even greater heights.  I can tell you now I am so looking forward to KMA's next press conference and also the launch of their official website.  Who would have thought last year when I started out on my running journey that there would be such a snowball effect in running in Kuching.  Am so glad I could bring this piece of good news to my fellow runners faster than the press.  So for future updates on what KMA are doing do check my blog from time to time.

L-R: Wong, TC Liew and Chua after the Spring Live Active Run

 

Newsflash!

The Kuching Marathon 2014 website is online!  Yes it does say coming soon, but hey, now we know it is coming! So sometime in the later half of 2014 there will be, fingers crossed, a full marathon in Kuching.  For those who want to follow up to date news do please visit Kuching Marathon's official FB page at www.facebook.com/KuchingMarathonAssociation. That's all from me for now folks. Happy running always!