26th Mt. Kinabalu International Climbathon 2012 - 14 October 2012

The Climbathon first started in 1987 where its origins can be traced to the Sabah Parks’ intention of creating a rapid rescue squad made up of a team of rangers who can bring down injured climbers fast (this is especially useful during bad weather when helicopters cannot be used). It was an all Malaysian affair for a year until it was opened to international participants. Sabah Tourism Board saw the potential of the event being a promotional tool to promote Sabah and took over organising the event in 1995. The Climbathon became a member of the World Mountain Running Association in 1997 and hosted the 15th World Mountain Running Trophy in 1999 at Kinabalu Park.

In 2003, the Climbathon was admitted as member of the International Skyrunning Federation, the international body that promotes sports at high altitude. Since then, the Climbathon has been a part of the Federation’s Skyrunner World Series until this present year. International top runners from various countries race in the series’ venues to gather points to become the series world champion.

All these years, the 21 km Climbathon race course has been using the mountain summit trail from Kinabalu Park headquarters to the peak of the Mount Kinabalu and back down again to Kinabalu Park headquarters.

Unfortunately, the Park management will only allow 250 participants to race at any one time due to the difficult conditions at the summit for race officials to oversee. The maximum number of participation has been successfully reached. The Mt. Kinabalu International Climbathon race committee has decided that from 2012 onwards, the race course will be altered to start from Kinabalu Park headquarters, going half way up Mt. Kinabalu to Layang-Layang station (2760.3 m above sea level), then down to Mesilau Nature Resort before ending at Kundasang town to cater for even more participation in line with the objectives of promoting tourism in the country.

The new 23 km course is longer by 2 km from the previous race course and goes through forest, villages and a golf course in the district of Kundasang. The race will end at the small vegetable town of Kundasang with participants being welcomed by villagers and locals dressed in colourful traditional costumes.

-www.climbathon.my