Getting excited with the upcoming Borneo Trail Classic (BTC) to be held on 16 to 17 October

Kudos to Kuching Fit­ness As­so­ci­a­tion (KFA) which will be col­lab­o­rat­ing with Sarawak Sports Cor­po­ra­tion (SSC) to or­gan­ise a se­ries of six free com­mu­nity runs lead­ing up to the main race. Both parties had also organised the coming Bor­neo Trail Clas­sic (BTC) which will be held at our Kubah Na­tional Park from 16 to 17 October where over 2,000 run­ners are expected to take part including those from outside Sarawak. 

Together with the organisers, we are very op­ti­mistic that ev­ery­thing will be al­right by Au­gust and the run­ners will be sign­ing up when the organisers launch their web­site reg­is­tra­tion starting 8 March and we are also pleased that Sarawak was the only stop in South-East Asia for the Spar­tan Trail World Cham­pi­onship.

The coming event is also a good plat­form and op­por­tu­nity to give the par­tic­i­pants the con­fi­dence to travel here, putting Sarawak on the world map as travel des­ti­na­tion for trail run­ning sport. Over here, we have the best kept trails - from the lush of the rain for­est to the paddy fields, a wide of va­ri­ety of scener­ies and moods, an ‘In­sta­grammable’ op­por­tu­ni­ties for the participants and perhaps those who are accompanying them too.

For Sarawakians, the coming events will give the op­por­tu­nities to run along­side world class trail run­ners, ex­pos­ing and groom­ing lo­cal ath­letes to world class stan­dards. The BTC is not lim­ited to the sea­soned run­ners but it is for any­one and ev­ery­one as there are dif­fer­ent cat­e­gories for all dif­fer­ent age groups and fit­ness level.

The international event is also giving us a good plat­form to show­case our unique cul­ture and warm hos­pi­tal­ity to the world and it pro­vides an op­por­tu­nity to help revitalise our tourism in­dus­try post Covid-19. Thus, it will help pro­mote trail run­ning and iden­tify lo­cal tal­ents to rep­re­sent Sarawak and com­pet­ing against the in­ter­na­tional trail run­ners.

Sarawak had the opportunity to be showcased in the previous Spar­tan event held in 2019 because it is the world’s largest en­durance brand, had searched all over Asia for the best ter­rain and com­mu­nity to help build this epic trail event.

For our state to be included in 10 stops for this year's Spar­tan Trail World Cham­pi­onship se­ries is really an achievement because the other stops also in­clude Spain, Italy, Swe­den, Ar­gentina, US, Aus­tralia and Hong Kong.

According to the organisers, the BTC com­prises five dis­tances - 7km, 10km, 21km, 50km (Trail Run Cham­pi­onship) and 100km (Trail Ul­tra Cham­pi­onship). Those interested can reg­is­ter at www. bor­neo­trail­clas­sic.com and the event is jointly or­gan­ised by Kuching Fit­ness As­so­ci­a­tion and Spar­tan Trail and is sup­ported by the Min­istry of Tourism, Arts and Cul­ture of Sarawak.