Penonton: Adidas King and Queen Of The Road 2011

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Adidas King and Queen Of The Road 2011 - Top 10 Official Results

PETALING JAYA – It was a sea of colourful and passionate runners as 7,700 participants took to the NPE Highway for this year’s most talked about run – the adidas Malaysia King of the Road 2011 which was flagged-off by the Minister of Works Dato’ Shaziman bin Hj Abu Mansor, to the roar and cheers of the runners at the Sunway Pyramid frontage.

This year’s race themed ‘Colours’ rendered a brilliant spectacle for the eyes. The theme aptly underscored the variety of different coloured adidas racing bibs that the participants donned. The mesmerising multi-colours were a salute to the vibrancy of the sports scene across South East Asia.

“As a global leader in running, adidas is geared towards helping runners all over the world perform better with the introduction of products, technology and platforms designed purely with a runner’s needs in mind. The organisation of running events such as the adidas King of the Road championship is meant for runners to challenge themselves and to achieve personal breakthroughs,” said Ng Chee Loon, Country Manager of adidas Malaysia.

adidas has a long standing history in running and athletics dating back to 1928 when its founder, Adi Dasster, supplied Una Radke with a handmade pair of spikes to wear during the Olympic Games in Amsterdam. Many more heroes of athletics have followed including Jesse Owens, Emil Ziltopek, Al Oerter, Bob Beamon, Daley Thompson, Grete Waitz, Heike Henkel and Haile Gebrselassie.

“adidas further shows its passion for running and its running community when we announced the launch of our nationwide running club, the adiNation of Runners. Offering a host of benefits and privileges to running enthusiasts across the country, the club's programme is designed to incentivize runners to hit the pavement, keeping up with their individual running goals and achieving their personal bests at local races,” said Ng.
With state of the art tracking equipment and the latest in technology monitoring, the adidas King of the Road 2011 was held over a 16.8KM and a 10.0KM stretch of the NPE Highway – cutting through 3 different key districts in the Klang Valley with an awesome panoramic view of KL city.

The adidas King Of The Road is part of a regional running initiative by adidas which sees five countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines and Malaysia) organise the same race that ultimately leads to a grand finale to be hosted in the Philippines on 23 October 2011. The run is opened to all run aficionados - from social runners to serious athletes.

Today’s marathon comprised of two categories - the ‘Closed’ category (Men / Women) opened to local runners (Malaysians and Permanent Residents) and the ‘Opened’ category (Men / Women) for international participants. The winner of the country’s Closed categories (Men / Women) will represent Malaysia in an all-expenses paid trip to compete in the adidas KOTR Southeast Asia Championship to be held in this year’s host country, the Philippines, in a bid to be crowned the adidas South East Asia ‘King of the Road 2011’.
“This event comes at a time when running is becoming increasingly popular among Malaysians and across Southeast Asia. Keeping up with this fitness trend, we hope to contribute to the vibrant sports scene in Malaysia and the region by cultivating sporting habits and an active lifestyle. In addition, we hope that the adidas KOTR will offer runners the opportunity to run different routes across the region that will ultimately enhance their running experience,” added Ng.

The 2011 ‘King Of The Road’ in Malaysia is supported by the Ministry of Works, concessionaire New Pantai Expressway Sdn Bhd and the Sunway Group. It marks the 13th edition hosted by the world’s leading sports brand, ‘adidas’ with a whopping confirmed 7,700 runners participating in Malaysia and up to a total of 45,000 participants across the region. - Press release

After a year gap waiting, finally runners have the chance to be King and queen of the road again. This year the event was held at Sunway Pyramid as center stage and NEP as the running route. The event was well organised where the NEP is completely closed, runners need not worried about traffic, water stations were sufficient, there were portable toilet along the route, KM marking was clear and light breakfast was provided.

There are room for improvement for this event. The registration fees is getting higher and higher each year and no special fees for students to encourage juniors to join in healthy event. Many runners also complaint that they were not allow to choose the size they wanted during online registration and also did not allow to change it during bib collection.

There were some dispute where some runners ran short and also winner was given the wrong potential winner tag at the finishing line. However, with the timing chip, all dispute has been settled and corrected. Prizes presentation to top 3 winners for each category on stage was smooth and efficient. However, the prize collection was inefficient. Winners has to queue up to collect prizes in goods in kind, then needed to queue again to collect cash and voucher. The queue started to getting longer and longer as only one counter open to distribute prizes. After much complaint from runners, then only additional counter was open to ease the queue.

Wish adidas could organize a more grand and entertain event in KOTR 2012

More photos here.