Malaysia: Royal presence in equestrian challenge

Thestar.com

Thursday August 21, 2008

KUANTAN: Pahang will host the National-level Penn-Endurance challenge, a hard-core discipline of the horse-riding competition for a 100km, 60km and 20km distance in continuous hours in the Penn-Endurance Challenge 2008 in Cherating this weekend.

State Youth, Sports and Culture Committee chairman Datuk Wan Adnan Wan Mamat said the King, Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin Sultan Mahmud Al-Muktafi Billah Shah would take part in the 100km race.

Wan Adnan said he himself would take part in the 20km race as his first attempt in the event.

He said Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob would flag-off the participants in the 100km and 60km race while Pa­hang Menteri Besar would start the 20km race.

“The race will start in Kampong Cherating, at 3pm on Aug 23, near the Holiday Villa resort, and it will cover the route until Kuantan Port, back to Kampong Sungai Ular, Kampong Baging, all in Cherating area.

“Participants are expected to reach the ending point in Cherating at 6pm the next day. “The race covers areas of beaches, river, forest and some hilly parts in Cherating.” said Wan Adnan.

He said the event was offering RM10,000 cash and a challenge trophy for the champion in the 100km race, RM7,000 for the first runner-up while the prizes for other categories would be announced by the organising committee soon.

Wan Adnan said the competition is part of the state government’s effort to promote sports tourism and so far 150 participants had confirmed their participation including from Singapore, while Pahang would have four participants. “As a popular tourist destination, Cherating need to be promoted and hopefully this event will create another history for the stateevent such as this,” he said.

Adnan said the top winners would automatically qualify for the World Endurance Championship 2008, to be held in Lembah Bidong, Terengganu in November this year.