MMAA 9^th ANNUAL ROAD RELAY, 2004 DATE OF EVENT : 24/7/2004

Last year’s The Star Newspapers, Metro Sport headline reads “KLAVA, PACM share honours”.  This years official results confirmed we were even better !   In the Junior master’s (40 – 49 years) we snatched all 3 podium placings  i.e. 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd; beating Polis Malaysia  (PDRM) and Singapore along the way.  Even our D Team came in 5^th.  This year, unfortunately The Star Newspapers did not carry the results due to lack of space after naming the list of special award recipients for MAVA’S 20^th anniversary (Please refer to attached newspaper cutting).

 Anyway, we were also champions in the Men’s (60 years & above).  In the other 2 categories participated; the Men (50- 59 years) and Women senior master (45 years & above) we were runners up to the very strong PDRM and PACM (Pacesetters) ‘A’ Team respectively.  We missed the service of our top runners Yasan Ramin and Thaneswaran in the 50  - 59 years group due to unforeseen circumstances.   Hence our ‘A’ & ‘B’ Team for Men’s 50 – 59 years were not so strong this year.  Please refer below for summary of KLAVA’s teams performances : -   

 For further informations, please refer to attached extracts from MMAA Official Result Booklet.

 The good performance were made possible due to the strong commitment of our members.  It is like a close- knitted family.  Most of them knows each other and have been representing KLAVA over the years.  This is inspite of them also being Pacesetters members.  We are proud of them and hope they will continue to represent KLAVA.  For these, I hope they’ll be duly rewarded in future.

 A point to note is that we have quite a balance batch of top men runners which we can ultilise to our advantage to compete in road relays requiring 8 or more runners.  Such as the Penang Round The Island & The Round The Houses Road Relays.  (Note that we captured 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd placing for this MMAA Men’s Junior Master Event)  Some of our members performance have also improved even though they are growing older by the years.

 Getting 12 KLAVA teams to participate in this MMAA Road Relay was no easy task !  It definitely was’nt smooth sailing all the way.  Some members, either due to busy work load or some busy race calendar the past 2 months, were unable to attend any of the time trials held.  Hence, for them it was left to the decision of the selection committees based on their recent race performance.   If they choose not to turn up it can be a difficult decision and sometimes we cannot please everybody.    There were also a few members who, for unexplained reason turn up well beyond the stipulated reporting time on race day.  They have kept their team members anxiously in suspense whether they’ll actually turn up at all.   For these members I hope they’ll not repeat it next time.  There was one member who eventually failed to turn up without even informing.  Luckily there was a KLAVA reserve runner for that age group, otherwise that team would not be able to participate. 

 Inspite of the good performance, it should be noted that we do not have any runner to participate in the women’s 35 to 44 years.  We hope all the members will assist to scout for new members in this age group if were unable to get our existing members to participate.

 For the women’s 45 years and above we managed  to recruit some new members. We hoped they will eventually fill the vacant gap left behind by our former so-called “Golden Girls” some of whom have chosen to represent Pacesetters.  Beating Pacesetters Team ‘B’ was considered an achievement as previously PACM made a clean sweep of all the women’s 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd placing.

 A word of thanks to be mentioned here for the following persons : Vincent Wong, for technical advice on selection;  Tunku Maziah and Peter Goh for assisting to contact some members;  Tan Wah Sing, Vincent Wong, Peter Goh and Wong Kim Tham as cameraman;  Lim Yoke Fooi and Peter Goh for assisting to take timing during some of the trials;  Lim Yoke Fooi for being in charge of the KLAVA banner and render assistant when required;   Nanchappan our top runner who have to run about 4 kilometres with his belongings to the starting point because his bus  was caught in the traffic jam !  To Chong Kok Onn for being so gracious to come along as standby (no provision for reserve runner in this event).   Last but not least, our president En. Ahmad Kushiary for his present and all those who came to represent KLAVA in this competition.  We look forward to the next road relay.

 Reported by : Eddy Choo