Runners Of Standard Chartered KL Marathon Are Not Settling For A Change Of Date
SCKL has been changed from 4 October to 10 October.
By John Lim — 15 Jul 2015, 06:02 PM
Standard Chartered KL Marathon back on 4 October, says Khairy
Responding to the huge public outcry, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has apologised for changing the date of the Standard Chartered KL Marathon. With that, he has announced that the date has been reverted to the original date of Oct 4.
“I have personally been reading a lot of your comments about the marathon and have held many discussions with the organisers and other stakeholders. We have jointly come to the conclusion that the Standard Chartered KL Marathon will be reverted back to Oct 4, considering the many issues that have been raised,” Khairy said in a statement posted on his Facebook account today.
"On behalf of the ministry, Standard Chartered, Dirigo and DBKL, I apologise for the inconvenience caused by the earlier change in date and I hope that you all will still come forward to support the National Sports Day," he added.
themalaymailonline.com
His ministry had previously announced the event has been postponed from Oct 4 to Oct 10 to coincide with the inaugural National Sports Day. Some 35,000 participants had signed up for the event, which Khairy said would boost participation at the National Sports Day.
malaysiakini.comPreviously, Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur (SCKL), the highlight of all running events in Malaysia was postponed from 4 October 2015 to 10 October
The announcement was posted on Standard Chartered KL Marathon's Facebook page on Monday, 13 July. The event was postponed by the request of the Youth and Sports Ministry - for it to run simultaneously with the inaugural National Sports Day.
In the statement issued by the ministry on Monday, it was stated that the marathon, which saw all 35,000 spots snapped up within four days, would lend a big boost to the targeted 3 million participants for the inaugural National Sports Day.
themalaysianinsider.com
This is not the first time SCKL has been postponed. Back in 2013, SCKL was postponed due to haze.
In this case, it was postponed not due to bad weather but the ministry's choice to have it run together with National Sports Day. While SCKL will be offering refunds, the announcement is not sitting well, with many runners voicing their frustrations on social media.
Besides that, there are other running events happening on the weekend of 10-11 October which some runners have signed up for
By reading through the comments, most of the participants were frustrated simply because of the fact that SCKL and its organiser agreed to the ministry's request
Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming, who is also an avid runner protested the postponing with a group of runners this morning, 15 July. He also expressed his disappointment over Khairy's poor planning.
The runners, who gathered at Lake Gardens in Kuala Lumpur this morning, said the reason given by the ministry for postponing the event was selfish and inconsiderate.
themalaysianinsider.com
Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming said Khairy had a year to plan the National Sports Day after its announcement during the Budget 2015 speech by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
“He knew when the marathon was going to be held, he could have planned it properly to coincide with the National Sports Day and yet he has made this unilateral decision to change the date,” he said.
themalaysianinsider.com
A Facebook page calling for organisers to bring back the original date has been setup
At the time of writing, the page has over 3,000 likes.