THE state government today declared Sunday’s Penang Bridge international marathon 2017 a success despite criticism of T-shirt shortage, expired chocolates and long medal collection time.

State tourism exco, Danny Law, the marathon’s organising chairman, said the event drew 35,000 runners from 85 countries. 

“It was an achievement. All the hotels benefitted… It is still a successful major international event for Penang. Runners won lucky draw prices, including the top prize that was a Volkswagen Vento. 

“But some newspapers only chose to highlight the negative parts and disregarded the good parts,” Law told The Malaysian Insight. 

The Penang Tourism Board is the organiser.

Some participants criticised the event’s poor organisation and aired their grouses on social media, which were picked up by the press. 

Runners said they did not get T-shirts in their sizes, Hisyamzaila Hatimtai, posted on Facebook.

“They said they ran out of stock for the wanted sizes. I was given XS although I asked for L when I registered in December 2016,” he said on Facebook, adding that runners had to wait a long time to get their finisher medals.

“For a marathon so grand, it was very humiliating. (I) will definitely not join this event next year,” he said the next day.

Runners waited two hours to collect their medals and that the top three runners in the junior category were denied a podium presentation.

Some Facebook users also posted photos of chocolate bars with a best-by date of November 14, 2017.

Penang Gerakan waded into the controversy, demanding that the Pakatan Harapan administration deal with the issues raised at the international event held annually since 1984. 

State Gerakan vice-chairman Oh Tong Keong said in a press conference today the state could not evade the issue any more. 

“The event organisation has been getting worse year after year. Since 2014, the state government, namely the tourism exco, only knows how to apologise and say they will look into the problems to improve the event. But problems recur every year. 

“Law also looked for excuses or ran from his responsibility by pointing the finger at others like what had happened after the previous marathons.”

In 2014, a venue switch between the two Penang bridges was blamed for the lack of preparation, Oh said.

In 2015, there was a shortage of spray and drinking water, which Law blamed on lack of sponsors. 

In 2016, Oh said the date of the marathon was changed to the school holidays. 

Law admitted that there were shortcomings, promising that the organiser would look into making improvements. 

But he disputed Oh’s account.

“Like the date change last year. It only affected about 10 participants and the organiser took care of changing their flight tickets,” he said. 

Law said Oh was criticising him just for the sake of criticising him. 

On the expired chocolates, Law said out of 35,000 bars only 250 were expired. 

He said the sponsor took boxes containing the expired chocolates by mistake and the chocolate bars ended up distributed to runners. 

Law also said the T-shirt size issue had to do with the change of sponsor from Asics to Brooks, adding that the sizing was different.

On the medal fiasco, Law disputed news reports that runners had to wait two hours to get their medals. 

He said runners finished at different times and went to collect their medals at different times, which could have given the impression that many people waited long to get their medals. 

Law also said a small group of runners, who did not qualify for medals, had insisted on getting them anyway. – November 28, 2017.