KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysian Tower-running Association (MTA) president Ravinder Singh has said he hopes tower running will be included in the programme for the 2027 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.
“We have been trying to promote this sport for the last three years. This is our last attempt to try and put this on the agenda of people who can decide,” he said.
Ravinder said tower running can have a good effect on the grassroots as it is very easy to pick up.
“We need sports that everybody can do. In other sports, you need to learn specific techniques and skills.
“Anyone can walk up the stairs. We are really appealing to the authorities to help get tower running into the SEA Games,” he said.
The association has engaged the Youth and Sports Ministry to help get tower running into the KL Games.
“We have a good relationship with the ministry and we already met the minister and her deputy.
“The minister not only spoke with us but also participated in the sport,” he said, referring to Hannah Yeoh walking up 18 floors at Menara KBS, Putrajaya in less than six minutes in January.
Kuala Lumpur is also a good place to grow the sport as it is ranked number eight in the world for cities with buildings that are taller than 150m high.
The economic capital of Malaysia is home to 154 skyscrapers that can be used as training grounds for up-and-coming tower runners and as venues to host international tournaments.
“It is a great way for people to exercise. It will be disappointing if tower running is not included in the SEA Games as we have a world number one athlete,” said Ravinder.
Soh Wai Ching is the number one tower runner in the world, having competed and won plenty of tournaments worldwide.
For the women’s category, Michelle Tan is world number 10 and Yee Chin Chan is 16th in the world.
This makes Malaysia sixth in the world for the sport.
“We want to be number one and we want to be the best. The goal is for us to have two male athletes in the top five and two female athletes in the top 10 so we can improve our ranking to first in the world in the next one or two years,” Ravinder said.
To increase the sport’s popularity, MTA has been working hard to organise more tournaments in the country to raise awareness of tower running.
The association says it is close to organising a race every month and organises workshops to promote the sport.
“We don’t charge for these workshops. It’s a form of corporate social responsibility, but also a way to promote the sport.
“One of the association’s visions is for everybody to be aware of this sport and its benefits. This will hopefully encourage people to participate. When more people try it, we will have a bigger talent pool to pick national athletes from,” said Ravinder.
Recently, the SEA Games Federation made an amendment to its charter agreed to by the member countries, on the eve of the recently concluded SEA Games in Cambodia, Phnom Penh.
The 11 participating countries agreed to reduce the number of non-Olympic and traditional sports at the 2025 Thailand, 2027 Malaysia, and 2029 Singapore editions.
Ravinder is confident of enough interest from neighbouring countries to participate in the sport if it were to be included in the 2027 Games.
For a non-Olympic and traditional sport to be included in the Games by the host country, at least four nations must agree to participate.
“There are five countries in Asean that are in the world’s top 40. There are not many sports with that number of Asean nations in the top 40,” said Ravinder.
MTA is confident it can offer three gold medals if the sport does make it to the 2027 KL Games programme with men, women, and mixed team events.
Since tower running is a new sport in Malaysia, it lacks resources and funding to play a leading role for inclusion in the 2027 Games.
“After our start on August 23, 2019, we received RM10,000 during the pandemic on September 3, 2020 to create a digital Sports Management Platform for tower running.
“We have also received funding to host international races and for our national athlete (Soh).
“We are willing and able to provide the technical support and organisation to make this dream a reality. We are hoping for somebody in the authorities to agree. We will be happy to do the work, but we cannot make the decision. That is the challenge for us.” – The Vibes, May 27, 2023
