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SAC – The Sacred Mountain edition a huge success

KUCHING: Sarawak Adventure Challenge (SAC)themed ‘The Sacred Mountain’ held its second edition of adventures from the Singai Recreation Centre in Bau near here recently.

Team FWCT winners of the Sarawak Adventure Challenge Mixed Duathalon event.

The flag off was officiated by Councillor Piee Anak Joheng.

According to a press release, this year’s event took 123 competitors on a tough new route that included a 38-km mountain biking, 12-km trail running and a special task to assist the community.

All the activities took place in and around the area surrounding Mount Singai.

Organised by Draco Action Sports with the support of Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youths and Sports, the event highlighted Sarawak spectacular scenery and adventure opportunities by taking competitors through a variety of trails and terrain.

The specially designed adventure race route included river crossings, forest covered trails, village trails, local roads as well as the path to the Catholic Mission Pilgrimage Centre on Mount Singai. It was here that all competitors were required to carry bricks to the centre as part of the challenge.

With a total prize purse of over RM35,000 up for grabs, the competition for the top places was indeed fierce.

Team G PDRM from Peninsular Malaysia took home the RM6,000 champion prize for the Men’s Duathalon event(combining both mountain biking and trail running). Team members who comprised Muhammad Fauzin Ahmad Lutfi and Shahrin Ammir completed the course in just under four hours.

The champion for the Mixed Team event (one man and one woman) Duathalon was Team FWCT consisting of Natahsya Soon and Johnie Ngongoloy from Sabah. They also received RM6,000 for their effort.

This year, a number of new categories were introduced to increase participation options.

The Men’s Individual Duathalon event saw the most intense battle of all the categories with Juka Gerstner, a South African based in Kuching and Wan Haikal from Sarawak, battling it out over the entire 50-km race.

In the end, Juka crossed the finish line first a mere 20 metres ahead and received the top prize of RM1,800, while Norhani Mohd Jaffar from Johor was the champion in the Woman Duathalon. She received RM1,200 for her win. In the Individual Men’s Mountain Bike category, Gary Tay of Kuching took top honours while Bansik ak Brown of Kuching was the fastest woman.

In the Individual Trail Run category, Abg Jamadi Rosli of Kuching was the fastest man while Jean Voon, also from Sarawak, was the fastest woman.

Just over 60 per cent of the event participants were from outside of Sarawak and 25 per cent were international participants from Brunei and Singapore and as far as Hong Kong and China.

A number of expatriates based in the region also took part including British, Canadian, South African, Fijian and Serbian.

The majority of the participants (85 per cent) were men.

SAC aimed to be one of the premier adventure races in the region with widespread international exposure. With a growing network of international participants, the organisers are looking forward to expand the categories and the format for next year.

The tentative date for the 3rd edition will be on Oct 12, 2019.

Some competitors in this year’s edition said they could not wait for next year’s challenge and considered the event a truly adventure race and promised to be back in Sarawak again.

The event was also supported by Sarawak Tourism Board and the Bau District Office.

Among the major sponsors were GP Pusaka Sdn Bhd, LonPac Insurance and MOMA Water including the communities of Singai, Sibuluh, Apar, Barieng and Segong and the Catholic Mission Pilgrimage Centre who had provided much valued support.

This event was also part of the ongoing What About Kuching (WAK) programme.

(Taken from The Borneo Post)