Orange Run - BOYCOTT

I normally pay for my employee's entry fees for all running races in Malaysia to encourage a healthy lifestyle. I received a company circular today inviting all the employees to enter this year's Orange Run. For a fleeting moment I thought about it but then the moral high ground got the better of me.

Even though this race fits in nicely with my training programme and is a great distance for some speed work for Olympic Distance tri, last year's disgusting behaviour of some competitors and the race organisers compels me to blacklist it as a company sponsored race and I implore everyone to boycott it.

To remind you please see my earlier post last year Now I'm Angry . If you're reading this and thinking, oh well he's a foreigner so it's understandable that he says that. That's true I am a foreigner but I love living in Malaysia and I love Malaysia, there's a lot not to be loved however, the corruption, the dual standards, the ridiculous politics and I include in the last point the ridiculous politics in Malaysian sport.

What's wrong with competing against some of the worlds best competition or employing some of the world's best coaches for our Malaysian National Athletes for that matter (while I'm on my soapbox). Just because they are foreign doesn't taint the subsequent MALAYSIAN victories that will come due to the higher standards of competition and coaching. Maybe the victories won't come today but such standards will lead to victories tomorrow.







You only have to look at what happened to the English football team when Sven Goran Eriksson left - there was uproar at the very suggestion that the new coach wouldn't be English. As it turned out we got an Englishman but sadly his principle skills were that of a clown not of a football manager. Thankfully we seem to have learnt our lesson.

So in conclusion, Boycott the Orange Run, find the hardest competition you can and then try and kick their butts, learn to get better if at first you don't succeed, shy away from protectionism and nepotism at all costs - it's a one way road to mediocracy.


A final thought, what if they said no foreigners for the British Open Squash Championships? One of my all time heroes Nicol David would have one less trophy in her cabinet every year but I guarantee the standard of British Squash would suffer. As for the Brit that became champion, they'd always know that they didn't beat Nicol!!!