Liew (2nd right) being introduced to Team 2 of the SAR-HAT by the Assistant Director of Kinabalu Park Maipol Spait (right) at Timpohon Gate for simulation training at Panar Laban on Tuesday. [MTCE Pics]
KUNDASANG: The iconic Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon will be revived next year, says Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Christina Liew.
She was speaking to reporters after flagging off the Simulation Training Programme for Team 2 of the 30-member Search and Rescue High Altitude Team (SAR-HAT) at Timpohon Gate here on Tuesday. Team 1 had left for the training location at Panar Laban on Monday.
“Today I am happy to announce that we are going to resume the Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon which was stopped in 2017. Hopefully, we can make it happen by next year after Sabah Parks (under the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment) have made the necessary preparations to reopen the climbathon route,” Liew said.
According to the Minister, the climbathon will be part of a series of international events to be hosted by her ministry to take Sabah tourism to the next level. Also in the pipeline are an international golf tournament and Miss World Malaysia which the Ministry has agreed to support, she added.
The climbathon was an international skyrunning competition held for the first time in 1987, but was discontinued after three decades of promoting Southeast Asia’s highest peak and the surrounding Kinabalu Park which was declared Malaysia’s first World Heritage Site by UNESCO in December 2000.
Liew was accompanied by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Datuk Ir. Mohd Yusrie Abdullah and Director of Sabah Parks Datuk Dr Maklarin Lakim.
