I Wonder Why Malaysian Elite Runners Are Not Improving?

Here's a story of what happened today to my friend Jean Pierre Lautredoux. He won the 21km Junior Veteran category in the Seremban Half Marathon. I just found out this from his status in facebook.

"This morning i won Seremban 21k overall...this was followed by the usual complain from Thana who wants only his runners run & win the races. The race was open to Malaysians, PR & expats with working permit. The organizer called me with the mic to show a proof of PR or WP. I showed him my WP & he was satisfied.

But this Thana still continued to ... See morepush the organizer & federation to disqualify me. Thana came with his athlete Ganesan (2nd in my cat), wanted to see my WP. I told him, he was nothing to me, i didn't hv to show them a proof, only to the organizer. They were very aggressive, threatening, even asking my wife if she was Malaysian (hahaha...bodoh lah), asking her IC !!! Who does he think he is? Police? Immigration? Some more Ganesan telling me he was a competitor !!! I told him he was not a competitor as rather than use his legs to win, he tried to disqualify me to get the 1st spot. This ending by "you will see..." from them.

I was interviewed by a Star reporter. When i told her the story, she stopped to write & said: "TQ, bye". If medias support these ppl !!!

My French friends, on holiday in Malaysia, told me "If you do that in France, all the racism associations will sue you". I remembered, one time, the organizer didn't want to give the 1st prize to a Moroccan. The association sue the organizer. The guy got his prize, some indemnities & the race organizer cannot organize anymore race.

Later, I made a police report for harassment & threatening to protect myself & my family. I don't want things that happened in PD half marathon 2 years ago happen to me in one of the races. Two Kenyans were beaten by some indian guys (who waited for them in a quiet area) during the race.

I ran for more than 30 yrs & i never got this type of argument. I ran in many countries, ppl were all the time happy to see me run & here few guys make the mess for us foreigners. This is racism & anti-sportive.

I come there to run, have fun, meet friends & make new friends. Really a bad day."
 

I'm quite ashamed that this is still happening in the running scene in Malaysia. I even heard rumours that many Malaysian road races are considering banning foreigners (except PRs and those with work permits) from competing. Question today was to why the organiser still accepted his entry if they are thinking of disqualifying him only after the run? And organisers only look into the matter when "certain" party complaint, especially those who finished behind the best today.

This only makes us Malaysians, look really bad as in our attitude to compete against the best. I was quite happy to see when Noor Amelia, our very own home grown athlete, finished 3rd in the Half Marathon Women Open at SCKLM with a very respectable timing. She managed to beat a few Kenyans and also foreign runners.

Even our neighbouring country across the strait, a Singaporean student, Mok Ying Ren, finished 3rd in the Half Marathon Men Open (SCKLM). He also beat a few Kenyans and many top foreign runners.

These 2 young runners are example on how good competition can help improve their timings.

I know Peter as a very friendly runner, married to a Malaysian and has lived in Malaysia for quite number of years. He is seen in many local road races and won many of them. Instead of complaining, these "people" should find more about/embrace him and not resort to disqualifying him just because they can't beat him. Peter is more than willing to help runners, even me, to improve and it will be sad not to have strong runners like him to help improve the standard of running in the country.