Early June, the Malaysian Ultra Runners Association launched the Malaysia Ultra League Championship. It’s essentially a championship which currently has most (95% +) of the ultra marathon races in Malaysia. Runners participate in those races, accumulate points based on various criteria (distance, timing, elevation, position, trail vs road, …) and at the end of the year a gala will be organised where the top 20 female and male runners will be invited and recognised with trophies and various prizes. Anyone participating in these races will gain points: local runners and international runners in the same way.
There are sponsors lined up, with Ultron as the title sponsor for the 2016/2017 season.
I’m very excited by this as it’s the first time we have all the races together joining forces to promote ultra running in Malaysia. More and more runners are joining ultra marathons after running a full marathon. Having a championship will bring some positive competition and mostly give recognition to the best runners, with the associated exposure to medias, sponsors. Hopefully following this, we will unleash a “horde” of talented Malaysian ultra runners onto ultra races in the large APAC region.
The first race following the launch of MUL is Cameron Ultra Trail in July. I won’t be able to race it as I will be in Europe at that time but this is going to be exciting. The Malaysian Ultra Runners Association is working with all race directors to gather and include points for all races that happened after December 1, 2016 (the beginning of the season). The season runs from December 1 to November 30 of the following year. This is to allow for the organisation of the gala in December.
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