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WEC to parade through Kuala Lumpur
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
by Peter Ibrahim Abisheganaden. Photos by Natasha Mustapha.
The FEI World Endurance Championship 2008 will meet the public this Saturday when a parade of 48 horses will ride through downtown Kuala Lumpur to Dataran Merdeka. The parade will leave Taman Tasek Titiwangsa at 9:30 am and should arrive at Dataran Merdeka at approximately 10:30 am, where they will be met by KDYMM Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, the 13th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
The Malaysian endurance team will have five of 48 riders in the parade. The mounted unit of Polis DiRaja Malaysia has 31 horses and riders in the parade, while the rest are from Unit Berkuda DBKL.
Along the parade route, the horses will pass under the KL Monorail three times. If that is not enough, two marching bands will accompany the parade of horses.
Fun and games are expected at Dataran Merdeka, but only in a good sense. At the media launch this morning, the WEC organisers promise only one speech and a few nice surprises.
FEI Director of Non-Olympic Sports, Ian Williams was in Kuala Lumpur to give his thumbs up to the WEC organisers. The media was treated to a 90 minutes session detailing the many plans that the organisers have gone deep into to make these championships a success. When asked for his frank opinion of the Terengganu International Endurance Park (TIEP), on a scale of 1 to 10, he gave it an 11. He said the back-up facilities made it truly World Class venue, one of only three of this calibre in the world.
Arifsolutions Director Azrin Zudhi ran us through a presentation of the preparations, organisation and problems they have had to overcome to make Malaysia's WEC so highly respected.
It is no mean task to organise the movement of 140 horses from 41 countries. They will be flown in from nine pick-up points around the world. These pick-up points are in North America (for USA and Canada), 3 pick-up points in South America, Amsterdam for European horses, South Africa, Dubai for the Middle East horses, Australia and New Zealand.
At TIEP in Lembah Bidong, Setiu, Terengganu, the horses from different continents will be isolated from each other. Even horses from different parts of Europe may be isolated separately to keep horses with Piroplasmosis away from those in European countries that generally do not have this tick-borne disease.
Horses will start to arrive from 16 October. They will spend one day/night at KLIA before being flown by RMAF C130 transport planes to Kuala Terengganu.
The championship ride will be flagged off at 3:30 pm on 7th November. With a minimum speed of 12 km/h, there is a maximum ride time of 13 hours and 20 minutes.
The climatic conditions necessitates the event will be run through the night.
Azrin told Equestrian.Com.My, "The public will get to see the start and finish and a lot of crewing area. During the daylight loops we will have coverage of the race on screens. We are also trying to work out a GPS system so we can track the riders along the route and keep the public informed every step of the way. It will be very exciting."
Five Malaysians are
already qualified for the World Endurance Championships. KDYMM Sultan
Mizan Zainal Abidin, the 13th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia has
already qualified two horses. Former World No 1 Datuk “Awang”
Kamaruddin bin Abdul Ghani and Datuk Mohd Shu’aib Ishak both qualified
horses in Uruguay. Two stable riders from the powerful Royal
Terengganu Endurance Stables and Tengku Mahkota Kelantan Stables have
both qualified. Abd Halim Alihan (RTES) and Rosdan b Mohd Nor (TMKN)
are early qualifiers who have completed their full CoC eligibility.
About
fifteen other Malaysians have completed the first part of the CoC,
which comprises of two CEI 160 km finishes within 24 months on the same
horse, the second of which must be within 12 months of the WEC.
Some Malaysian riders are competing in South America this weekend to get their second CoC.
Malaysian riders are hoping for one of the four team and eight individual slots available to the host country. Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Wee Jeck Seng was the guest of honour at the event. Together with Datuk Abdul Rahin bin Dato' Mohd Said, Chairman of the Terengganu State Exco for Youth and Sports, and Dato' Seri Dr. Salleh Moh Noor, they unveiled the new Terengganu FEI World Endurance Championship logo.
by Peter Ibrahim Abisheganaden. Photos by Natasha Mustapha.
Azrin told Equestrian.Com.My, "The public will get to see the start and finish and a lot of crewing area. During the daylight loops we will have coverage of the race on screens. We are also trying to work out a GPS system so we can track the riders along the route and keep the public informed every step of the way. It will be very exciting."