If you haven’t heard, the 9th edition of the Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon happening yesterday (Sunday, 21st May 2017) at Dataran Merdeka.
And yes, we were a part of it!
Owned and organised by Dirigo Events, the Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon (SCKLM) has grown to become the premier running event in Malaysia, drawing thousands of local and international runners to the country whilst firmly establishing Malaysia in the global running calendar.
The 2017 edition of the race once again saw Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia returning as title sponsor, along with a host of returning and new sponsors, including Honda, Seiko, Brooks, Lucozade, and Pacific Regency.
SCKLM 2017 Race Day was preceded by the Race Entry Pack Collection from 18th – 20th May which was a bigger affair this year with the inclusion of the Prudential Healthy Life Expo, as well as the Friendship Run and Pasta breakfast on 20th May which saw Full Marathoners from Malaysia and around the world gather for a warm-up run and mingle in a more social setting.
Apart from the Full and Half Marathons, the Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2017 also featured a 10km distance and a 5km Fun Run for social runners, along with Kids’ Dash categories for children under 12 years of age.
There were also several categories like the Corporate Challenge, Media Challenge (that’s us!), Universities Challenge, and Ministries Challenge to either raise money for charity as well as provide friendly competition and bragging rights for the eventual winners.
And in the wee hours of 21st May 2017, close to 36,000 excited runners converged on Dataran Merdeka to take part in SCKLM 2017.
Cosmas Matolo Muteti,from Kenya won the Full Marathon Men’s Open category in a time of 2:18:43 to take home USD17,500 while the Full Marathon Women’s Open category was won by Elizabeth Chepkanan from Kenya in a time of 2:36:14 also earning USD17,500 in the process.
Delighted that he not only won the title but recorded a personal best while fighting off multiple winner Kennedy, Cosmas said, “I was running against strong opponents but I kept to my game plan and really enjoyed the run through some great scenery.”
The Full Marathon Malaysian Men’s category saw a close battle between defending champion Muhaizar Mohamad and Leo Tan Huong Leong. These 2 vastly improved runners were neck to neck until close to the finish when Muhaizar eventually repeated his triumph in last year’s SCKLM with an improved time and personal best of 2:35:55. Leo narrowly finished second in a time of 2:38:06 and Ow Yong Jin Kuan came in third in 2:43:45.
The Full Marathon Malaysian Women’s category was clinched by Yuan Yufang in a time of 3:23:00, while Loh Chooi Fern clocked 3:25:55 to come in 2nd and Chua Khit Yeng got 3rd place in a time of 3:33:46.
Efforts to make the Marathon more competitive, like having a seven-hour cut-off time and route checkpoints appear to be paying dividends as more than 8,000 runners signed up for the Full Marathon category this year. It is without a doubt that SCKLM has contributed greatly to motivating runners to continue to push their boundaries – as we did 🙂
Special thanks to our friends from Nike Malaysia for their unwavering support and constant motivation to be stronger, go faster, and do better.
For more information on SCKLM, hit up their website or Facebook page.
