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Triple treat for Riesler, breakthrough for Croneborg in Malaysia

It proved a breakthrough for one and a hat-trick for another on Malaysia’s stunning Langkawi Island

LANGKAWI, 12 NOVEMBER, 2016 – Popular Thailand-based Swede Fredrik Croneborg grabbed his breakthrough victory in winning IRONMAN Malaysia on the stunning island of Langkawi.

Croneborg had to withstand a storming run from Brazilian Thiago Vinhal to claim his first IRONMAN win in 8:39:11.

In the women’s race, it proved a record hat-trick of wins at IRONMAN Malaysia for Germany’s Diana Riesler who made her move late on the bike and proved too strong on the run in the Malaysian heat.

Breakthrough Victory for Likeable Swede

Fredrik Croneborg has made Asia his home – and cemented that with his breakthrough victory in IRONMAN Malaysia in Langkawi.

He became enamoured with Asia after initially working in China as an e-project manager, and for some years now has been based in Phuket. 

The diminutive Swede has been a regular figure on the burgeoning Asian IRONMAN scene, chalking up wins and podium finishes over the IRONMAN 70.3 distance to go with runner-up performances at IRONMAN Malaysia and IRONMAN Taiwan last year.

He found himself four minutes behind Harry Wiltshire (GBR) and Balazc Csoke (HUN) out of the water, and was still the same distance back at 70kms on the bike. But he pushed hard from that time, catching the leading bunch at 130kms. He was not content with the catch, forcing his way through the pack with Jeremy Jurkiewicz (FRA) to open a vital 1:30 advantage on to the marathon.

Croneborg, who had limited running build-up due to an injury and the recent birth of his first child, managed to build a two minute buffer on the field after 10kms as the runners started to move. Brazil’s Thiago Vinhal moved past the tiring Jurkiewicz into second place but he eventually ran out of real estate.

Croneborg won in 8:39:11 to celebrate in style, with Vinhal 33 seconds behind to register his first IRONMAN runner-up, after finishing third at Fortaleza last year.

The fastest run came from Japan’s Kaito Tohara who zoomed home to pick up third ahead of an impressive effort from Daniil Sapunov (UKR) who worked hard early on the run, but paid the price over the final kilometres as he chased his first IRONMAN podium.

“It feels incredible,” says Croneborg. “There are a lot of reasons for that. It’s my first IRONMAN title and after doing two second places, it is great. It got so close at the end and my preparation has not been optimal. All these things together and with the pressure before the race, it’s amazing. I felt a lot of crowd support out there from spectators and other competitors. It is my favourite race.”

“I lost the front group on the swim but my bike was good enough to catch that group and once I did, I managed to get away with Jeremy. That was the key moment given how Thiago ran,” he added.

Triple Treat for Riesler in Malaysia

Diana Riesler likes to challenge herself, trying for her third consecutive win in the heat and humidity of Malaysia, which has never been done before.

The German was handily placed third out of the water, a minute down on Japan’s Maki Nishiuchi but ahead of the key competitors Laura Siddall (GBR) and Mareen Hufe (GER).

Riesler worked her way quickly to the lead on the bike, and by the 70kms mark she had already stretched her advantage to 3:41 on Siddall and Hufe; 5:30 by 120km and she was off the bike with a 6:31 buffer on Siddall and 6:57 on Hufe.

The German gradually built on that considerable advantage to be 6:42 ahead of Siddall at 10kms of the marathon and eight minutes over Hufe at 25kms. She ran a 3:21:38 marathon in the heat and then through rain to arrive home for her third straight win in Malaysia with 9:25:34.

“I think I was third after the swim, and then I took over the lead on the bike after 30 kilometres. From then on, I stayed at the front. I’m just happy that I could win, and come back to Malaysia”.

Hufe continued her impressively consistent career with another podium to go with her runner-up at Brazil earlier this year and seventh in New Zealand. It was her seventh podium in the last four years.

Siddall enjoyed a solid day throughout – fourth out of the swim, second off the bike and just edged back to third overall for an excellent day in the office. It was her first podium in a full IRONMAN event.

About Malaysia Major Events

Malaysia Major Events (MME) is a division of Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB), an agency under the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Malaysia (MoTAC). MME was established under the Government’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) to identify, promote, facilitate as well as support viable international events to be staged in Malaysia. With its main objective to enhance Malaysia’s economic growth and profile, MME is also tasked to identify and support major event bids for sports, arts, lifestyles and entertainment events and provide assistance to home-grown and home-hosted events in order to further strengthen Malaysia’s global appeal as the venue of choice for major events in the region. MME also acts as a conduit between the public and private sectors in ensuring seamless processes are achieved through synergistic relationships with diverse event stakeholders in staging successful events in Malaysia.

For more information, please visit www.mymajorevents.com.myand follow MME on Facebook.com/MalaysiaMajorEvents, twitter @MyMajorEvents and Instagram @mymajorevents.

About Langkawi Development Authority (LADA)

The Langkawi Development Authority (LADA) was established by the federal government to plan, promote and implement development on the island of Langkawi. LADA was officially established on March 15, 1990 under the Langkawi Development Authority Act 1990 (Act 423) and placed under the authority of the Ministry of Finance. For further details, please visit www.lada.gov.my. 

About IRONMAN® Asia-Pacific

The iconic IRONMAN® Series of events is the largest participation sports platform in the world. Since the inception of the IRONMAN® brand in 1978, athletes have proven that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE® by crossing finish lines at the world’s most challenging endurance races. Recognized for excellence through distinguished events, world-class athletes and quality products, IRONMAN® has grown from a single race to a global sensation with more than 190 events across five unique brands: IRONMAN®, IRONMAN® 70.3®, 5150™ Triathlon Series, Iron Girl® and IRONKIDS®. IRONMAN® Asia Pacific owns and operates 19 major participation sports festivals in Australian and New Zealand annually including the IRONMAN® and IRONMAN® 70.3® races along with icons such as the Noosa Triathlon Festival, ASB Auckland Marathon, Mooloolaba Triathlon festival and the ITU World Triathlon Series.  For more information, visit www.IRONMAN.com.

OFFICIAL RESULTS

​FRIENDSHIP RUN & PASTA PARTY 2016

EDITOR’S NOTE 

🇲🇾Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon 2016 introduced its first ever FRIENDSHIP RUN & PASTA PARTY on 6th August 2016 at Dataran Merdeka as part of their build-up to the actual race on the following day.

I was lucky to be invited as a representative of the SCKLM 2016 Pacer Team, and as a Media Guest or was it, Media Gus?

✍In this short article, I give my interpretation of this new mini gala event, and try to answer some of these questions – What Was It All About? Was It Well Received By The Runners? Will It Be A Permanent Fixture Of SCKLM? Enough with the questions, already!

WHAT’S THE POINT?

🇨🇭According to Race Director Rainer Biemans, the idea behind this FRIENDSHIP RUN & PASTA PARTY 2016 is to foster better comradeship among the participating runners.

Rainer beamed, “This concept is commonplace in overseas Marathons, but it is a new practice in Malaysia, and we hope that it will catch on here too.”. 📹WATCH INTERVIEW WITH RAINER.

INTERNATIONAL GATHERING 

▶On the morning of SCKLM 2016, a total of 215 Friendship Runners gathered in the Hospitality Tent on the grounds of Dataran Merdeka. The participants consisted of a mix of local and foreign runners from countries such as Hong Kong, Holland and Japan. Some of them were dressed in colourful and cheerful costumes, and the mood was exciting and chirpy. 

A trio of running buddies from Hong Kong told me that they were glad to take part in this Friendship Run because it gave them the chance to find-out how to get to the race venue from their hotel. Plus, these pragmatic runners wanted to adjust their bodies to running in our humid climate before the race itself.

WHITE BALLOONS 

As a symbol of Peace, every runner was given WHITE balloons with which to run.

As a symbol of International Friendship, each balloon had a flag of a different country on it.

The trailing balloons certainly added a fun party tone to the scene. I wondered how long it had taken someone to painstakingly cut-off pictures of all the countries of the world, and then stick it on every single balloon. The stick-on flags were too small to be noticed from 1 metre away. On hindsight, it would have been more practical to just print the universal symbol of peace, a white dove, on all of the balloons, instead of hard-to-spot flags, because it doesn’t matter which country we belong, we are all still citizens of the world!

CAREFREE RUN

The Friendship Run was held to coincide with the KL Car Free Morning (KLCFM) event, and so, our band of merry runners started from the usual starting point at DBKL (Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur) Headquarters on Jalan Raja Laut and headed leisurely to Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan Ampang. 

With our distinguishing white balloons floating above our heads, we ran happily alongside the KLCFM participants who consisted a mix bunch of cyclists, runners, skateboarders, rollerbladers and strollers of all ages.

🎠Everyone was in a playful mood, relaxing, basking in the Sun, and making the most of the road closures.

BOLD IS BEAUTIFUL 

After our easy run, we headed back to the Hospitality Tent for some refreshments, and to exchange more running anecdotes. 

I INTERVIEWED TV Celebrity Reuben who had trained extensively under Coach Mark Williams for the past 3 months in preparation for his Full Marathon debut. Reuben’s physical transformation had been nothing short of amazing, especially to himself. Furthermore, Reuben could not believe the massive support and encouragement which he had received from his friends and followers throughout his incredible transformation from ZERO TO HERO!

For any new runners like Reuben who have taken the pledge to properly train and face a full marathon, they are already Champions, and to go ahead and actually complete 42km will be the icing on the cake. At the same time, there will be many more virgin marathoners who won’t make it to the Finish Line. For them, they should try harder the next time because the only failure in running is quitting when there is an opportunity for them to learn from their mistakes and GROW STRONGER.

MAKANTHON MANIACS

I am not sure who invented carbo-loading, but I know that Malaysian Runners have interpreted this fueling ritual in our own way. Since food is our favourite subject, we even greet our friends with the common phrase, “Sudah makan?” (Have You Eaten?). 

In fact, we don’t really care what we carbo-load on. We ignore the professional advice to load-up with pasta in the right quantities, and instead, we use carbo-loading as an excuse to stuff ourselves silly with the hope that we can run-off the extra calories.

🍝Of course, at this Pasta Party, there was a selection of foods meant for proper carbo-loading. There was a big smorgasbord of Spaghetti, Beef Balls, Baked Fish, Grilled Chicken, Vegetable Soup, Salad Bar, Cheese Board, Yogurt and Fresh Fruits galore.

🇦🇺The Emcee was an accomplished runner himself, and he was doing his best to motivate and inspire us as we ate our last meal.

🇯🇵I met a couple of Japanese Runners who were fans of Standard Chartered Marathons worldwide, and they were happy to share with me their overseas running anecdotes.

The Pasta Party started at 6pm, and by 8pm, most of the guests headed home or to their nearby hotel rooms for a good night’s rest.

KEEP CALM 

For me, the day before a full marathon is usually spent just relaxing and not doing anything too taxing. Normally, I will calm my nerves by doing something unrelated to running because I don’t want to overload my mind nor suffer from paralysis due to over analysis.

It’s natural to feel nervous before a marathon, and having a predictable routine to preoccupy a runner’s mind can help take the steam off some of the inevitable pressure.

STAY POSITIVE 

💭The mind is probably a runner’s biggest asset during the last few kilometres of a marathon when the body is drained out of all energy and wants to shut down. Having the right motivation, inspiration and mindset can lift a runner’s spirit when the going gets tough and when you would rather take a taxi home.

🌐Even the world’s leading sports brand have acknowledged the importance of mental toughness among sportsmen by using catchy advertising slogans such as “Impossible Is Nothing”, “Find Your Strong”, etc.

So, what has all this got to do with the  Friendship Run & Pasta Party event?

Well, the value of the Friendship Run & Pasta Party is not just in the physical running an eating part, but its NET WORTH is in providing an unique opportunity for passionate runners, from far and near, to support and lift each other’s spirits through the candid exchange of our personal HUMAN STORIES of triumphs and failures.

🌏As I made my way home, I felt newly REJUVENATED & READY for the run of my life, safe in the universal knowledge that we, runners, always have each other’s backs…

📹WATCH MORE COOL VIDEO CLIPS

Friendship Run By Happy Runner

Happy Finishers

Running With Rastaman

Run Easy

 Group Photo 

 Pasta Party Menu

📷For More Live Photos, Check-Out Friendship Run & Pasta Party 2016 photo album on Happy Runner page.

👏ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

Congratulations to Rainer, Gloria, Redz, David, Jacqueline, Dirigo Events Crew, AdidasMY, Sponsors and Event Partners on a splendid job🌟

*Disclaimer*

To the best of my knowledge, all of the information provided herein is accurate at the time of publishing and the views expressed are based on my own personal opinions and findings, and they don’t necessarily reflect the views of the Product Manufacturer, Event Organiser or any Third Party unless explicitly specified otherwise.

About The Author

Gus is the Founder of Running Toons and a HIIT Fitness Coach. As a freelance WRITER, he has contributed numerous insightful articles to The Star newspaper, Running Malaysia magazine, Cycling Malaysia magazine, Cycling Evolution magazine, Swim Bike Run magazine and more. LIKE Happy Runner for RUNNING UPDATES, Gus Rider for CYCLING NEWS, Gus Ghani for SPORTS INFOTAINMENT and FOLLOW gusghani @IG for LIFESTYLE.