Timber
Wood
Earth
Fire
Water
Metal
Time flies, its only 10 days away before we say "HAPPY 2011" and last Sunday we joined the closing climax of the road running event in Penang, viz the 33rd PAAA Round The Island Relay 2010 which was held on Sunday 19 December. The Start/Finish for this year's event was shifted to Upper Penang Road which is about 1km away from that of the previous years resulting in an additional of about 1km to the 1st leg runners at the expense of the 12th or last runners. As usual each team consists of 12 runners + 3 reserves and the total distance is 72.7km in a clockwise direction around the island.
This time we saw a breakthrough in the 33-year history n tradition of this event, for the 1st time ladies were among the participants, although not in the all women category as we suggested last year, the organisers introduced a Mixed category of 6 men n 6 women (ages above 16) per team. Another positive sign was an increased number of participating teams, a total of 27 teams registered for this year comprising of 11 from Men Open, 9 from Men Veteran and 7 Mixed compared to the total of 14 teams, 7 each from Open n Veteran last year. The minimum age for the Veteran category has been raised from 35 to 40 in accordance with IAAF ruling. The qualifying time has also been increased from 6 hours to 7 hours
To foster better understanding n cooperation our i-Run Group merged with Waterfall Warriors Group to participate in this year's event. With the kind n generous sponsorship from our Mr Lin Tai San, MD of TA-I Group, world's No 2 manufacturer of chip resistors, we managed to come up with 6 teams comprising of 4 Mixed n 2 Men Veteran which were named "i-Run Waterfall Warriors" - Water, Metal, Fire, Earth, Wood n Timber respectively.
Fortunately the weather conditions were fine n cloudy on race day. By 5:00am almost all of our runners, helpers, photographers were present at the starting point. It was crowded n noisy with activities of bib number collection, drink n refreshments distribution n photo taking sessions. At about 6:00am runners from all the teams were asked to assemble according to their line-ups. There were 6 buses standby which were provided by the organisers. All the 2nd n 3rd runners were sent to the 1st bus which took them to their respective stations followed by 5 groups of 4th n 5th, 6th n 7th, 8th n 9th, 10th n 11th n 12th to each of the remaining 5 buses for their respective stations. Finally all the 1st runners were flagged off at 6:25am, a delay of 25 minutes.
I drove my car, followed the runners n making stops along the baton exchange stations. While I was waiting at the 2nd station I heard that an unpleasant incident happened in which one of the front 1st leg runners was misled into running into a detour of more than 1km and resulted the following runners followed suit. It was still dark when it happened. Nevertheless the event went on smoothly over the remaining sectors.
Following are the results of our teams:
Mixed (total 6 teams competing) :
Champions : i-Run Waterfall Warriors - Metal (5:48:33)
Peter Chong Jian Li -> Wong Lai Huat ->Tan Chin Fong -> Ch'ng Lay Khim -> Jenny Wong Hooi Cheow -> Ch'ng Lay Hooi -> Deborah Chinn -> Choo Gim Chuan -> Chen Ee Ven -> Ooi Seow Fung -> Andrew Loh Lean Hock -> Phang Jit Hun
Runners-Up : i-Run Waterfall Warriors - Water (5:53:59)
Sam Chee Wang -> Muniandy A/L Krisna -> Ng Sun Nee -> Kamalavanan S/O Balasubramaniam -> Karen Geh Cheng Hoon -> Janet Ong Cheng Hoon -> Anthony See Chaur Yih -> Adeline Tan Man Hua -> Khoo Siew Swan -> Simon Lau Chee Kin -> Chubez S/O Vadivelu -> Leanne Cheah Lay Ean
3rd Placing : i-Run Waterfall Warriors - Fire (6:17:32)
Wong Jin Ji -> Tan Eng Hooi -> Christine Lim Lean Sim -> Kimberley Kong Kim Lain -> Cheah Lie Wei -> Gan Hoay Jen ->Anson Kiek Eng Li ->Chia Chee Wai -> Kuo Swee Im -> Tim Lee Chun How -> Han Mee Lan -> Vincent Teoh Soon Lee
5th Placing : i-Run Waterfall Warriors - Earth (6:52:27)
Kelvin Tharm Wai Weng -> Lee Mei Lan -> Michele Yeap Saw Khuan -> Gan Hoay Woon -> Eric Lim Tzu Yiang -> Teng Hooi Kean -> Chung Mei Ling -> Alvin Yeoh Keat Leong -> Lim Miow Chin -> Cheng Siew Seng -> Saw Ewe Jin -> Ong Leng Chin
Men Veteran (total 9 teams competing) :
4th Placing : i-Run Waterfall Warriors - Wood (5:36:38)
Tan Ah Chin (Soon) -> Tan Cheng Jin -> Leow Khek Piow -> Loh Ewe Chin -> James Lee Yeow San -> Loh Soo Hock -> Giam Chong Seng -> Leong Siew Kee (SK) -> Seah Keh Chin -> Soon Boon Beng -> Tsen Seong Fook -> Nicholas Accardi
9th Placing - i-Run Waterfall Warriors - Timber (6:52:27)
Philip Teh Swee Lee -> Lim Guan Choon -> Leong Weng Seng -> Khoo Hock Beng -> Cheng Wai Woo -> Heng Chung Lim -> Choong Peng Kiang -> Lim Beng Chuan -> Chee Wee Man -> Bok Chek We -> Kelvin Lim Hock Kheng -> Anselm Gan
All the results:
Men Open
1) Penang Turf Club Runners (4:29:08)
2) Penang Forward Sports Club A (47:32)
3) Pacemakers Malaysia 1 (4:50:44)
4) BM Leopard (4:54:02)
5) Phor Tay (Kelvin) (5:35:32)
6) Penang Forward Sports Club B (5:39:59)
7) Foreunner (5:44:36)
8) Pacemakers Malaysia 2 (5:54:51)
9) Team Happy Run - Farlim (5:59:27)
10) Penang Forward Sports Club C (6:05:49)
11) Cari Runners (6:50:03)
12) Western Digital (7:09:27)
Men Veteran Open
1) Taiping Road Runners (5:03:26)
2) Penang Forward Sports Club D (5:09:02)
3) Old Two (O2) Hiking Team (5:32:56)
4) i-Run Waterfall Warriors - Wood (5:36:38)
5) Old & Young (5:39:34)
6) OXA Veteran 92 A (6:09:47)
7) PVAA (6:34:18)
8) OXA Veteran 92 B (6:35:53)
9) i-Run Waterfall Warriors - Timber (6:52:27)*
Mixed
1) i-Run Waterfall Warriors - Metal (5:48:33)
2) i-Run Waterfall Warriors - Water (5:53:59)
3) i-Run Waterfall Warriors - Fire (6:17:32)
4) Rubber Burners (6:28:02)
5) i-Run Waterfall Warriors - Earth (6:52:27)*
6) Infinity Milers (8:55:09)
Except for the above mentioned 1st leg detour incident this event was well organised and all of us enjoyed it. Take this opportunity to extend our thanks and appreciations again to the following for making our participation successful:
+ Our group member, Mr Lin Tai San of TA-I Group for his generous contribution of almost ....RM3000.
+ Brooks for their sponsorship of our running vests
+ Our organising committe especially Andrew Loh, Captain Jin, Gan, Leng Hin and all the ....hardworking helpers n volunteers.
+ Sam Chee Wang of Waterfall Warriors
+ All the runners n reserves for their kind participation
+ All the hardworking cameramen, video cameramen
+ Others who had contributed greatly towards the success of our participation.
+ Last but not least, the organisers PAAA, thank you Mr Govind
We look forward to joining PAAA RTIR 2011 which may have better amendments as Mr Govind suggested:
1) 1st, 2nd n 3rd runners to run on the coastal highway i.e Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway till Batu Maung
2) Starting time to be brought forward to 5:00am
3) Time Limit : 7 hours
4) Medals for the 1st 5 teams and Certificates of Participation for the rest
5) Venue will be unchanged
Do you have any suggestions ?
click here n here for photo albums courtesy of Mei Ling
click here for a photo album courtesy of Adrian Ho
click here for a photo album courtesy of Ong Leng Hin
click here for a photo album courtesy of Eric Lim
THANK YOU
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