It is shocking to learn that an International marathon which is the pride of the runners in Malaysia has taken a twist after its successful launching on May 18, 2015. The event has managed to garner 35,000 participations in less than 5 days. This is indeed a very proud achievement for the running community and the organiser.

However, all the good work has just been tossed down the drain with the recent announcement from the Ministry of Sports on the postponement of the marathon to coincide with the inaugural National Sports Day.

We would like to bring to the attention of YB Khairy Jamaluddin, the Sports Minister & the organisers of SCKLM2015 that this change has inconvenience many and has indeed jeopardise the good name of the event at national and international level. Before you even make that decision, you should have considered the following.

1. That October 10 is a Saturday which means that those who have to work on Saturday and who cannot take leave will be forced to miss this marathon. And those who work and stay outside Kuala Lumpur may not be able to take leave to travel on Friday to Kuala Lumpur.

2. Many outstation runners may have bought their flight tickets already and since the SCKL Marathon doesn’t cover refunds for air tickets, runners who don’t want to pay for another ticket will be forced to miss this marathon.

3. There are thousands of foreign participants who have bought their flight tickets & booked their hotel accommodation as well as apply for leave from work. This is not going to reflect well on our tourism

4. There are 9 other races in Malaysia being held on the 10th and 11th of October. Instead of being able to participate in two events – the SCKL Marathon and one of the races which will be held on the 10th and 11th of October – runners will be forced to choose between them and only participate in only one race.

5. Some runners may choose to miss this event because of perceived political interference by the Minister and Ministry of Youth and Sports.

6. Some runners may choose to miss this event because the experience of running on the roads in KL on a Saturday, with the increased traffic on the roads which are not totally closed, will be less enjoyable compared to running on a Sunday, with the lower amount of traffic.

7. The change of date does not only inconvenience the participants but also the hundreds of volunteers who may not be able to make it on the new dates.

We hereby strongly urged the YB Khairy Jamaluddin as the Sports Minister to restore SCKLM2015 to its original date of October 4, 2015.

STOP hijacking a well organised and established running event which is the pride of running community in Malaysia.

Likewise, you may just declare the month of October as the National Sports Month to do justice to the running community.

From the Running Community who love running and Malaysia.