The 29th PJ Half Marathon was hailed as a huge success with 7000 participants turning up from all across the world at Dataran Boulevard on the weekend.
The annual event had four categories – 21km Open, 10km Open, 7km for seconds school students and 3km Fun Run – making it friendly for everyone to join including children and the disabled.
The organizers were surprised that the 21km Open category had the highest participation rate of 4200 people considering that it is the toughest category.
The total participation for all categories had achieved an increase of 2000 people compared to last year and this considering that the closing date for taking part was closed one month before the deadline due to enthusiastic responses from local and foreign participants.
Petaling Jaya City Council, YB Dato’ Mohd Azizi bin Mohd Zain officiated the event together with YB Elizabeth Wong, who also joined the crowd to run in the 10km Open.
Mohd Azizi expressed his satisfaction over the success of the event and planned to make next year’s half marathon even bigger in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the run.
“I am very grateful for the crowd’s turn up. The event has been our greatest achievement yet.
“The participation has been increasing year after year especially for the international participants (200 participants from 34 countries).
“We plan to try something different next year as the half marathon turns 30. There might be an additional 30km open category but we have not finalized anything yet,” he said.
The event was organised by Persatuan Olahraga PARA Selangor (POPS), Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) and Puncak Ventures SRA Sdn Bhd. – BY DESLYN YOON