GEORGE TOWN: The Penang Bridge International Marathon (PBIM) continues to draw flak from participants, three days after the event proper last Sunday.
Participants took to PBIM's official Facebook page to blast the organiser for the poorly organised annual run.
Some even vowed to give the PBIM a miss in future.
Ifeng Tan posted "To PBIM, I've the same thought too. Please at least send the finisher medals to the runners who don't get it. I run for medals, I think most of the runners too! I believe receive it late better than don't have. Please put some effort in this matters!"
Kc Oon said "I have no idea what my results was -- status : withdrawn during race -- as I finished my whole run, and I didn't get my medal nor finisher tee."
Rufina Guteri Ganggus noted "I found that the three winners of half marathon women open and best Malaysian are the same person. Pls advise" while Hafiz Nodin asked "So do I collect my medal on the stage or under a tent. Also, where can I collect my expired chocolate?"
The New Straits Times reported before this that the PBIM was still plagued with technical issues.
Among them were the alleged poor organisation, giving participants expired chocolates and incorrect sized T-shirts, two-hour delay for finishers to collect their medals as well as three best performers in the junior category being denied a podium presentation of their prizes.
The annual run attracted 35,000 local and foreign participants this year in four categories -- 42km full marathon, 21km half-marathon, 10km run and 8km Fun Run.
Meanwhile, state Gerakan vice-chairman Oh Tong Keong said the issues which plagued the run showed that the Penang government did not pay serious attention to such international event.
He said state Tourism Committee chairman Law Heng Kiang was only good in issuing apology each time blunder’s takes place and promised to improve, but with no results at the end.
He added that when problem cropped up in 2014, Law had cited little time to make preparations due to a last minute change in venue and the following year, he said lack of sponsorship resulted in shortage in water and spray supply.
In 2016, Law had said that requests from parents of school-going children led to a change in the date of the event, resulting in unhappiness among many participants who had booked their flight tickets earlier.
"This time around, when the issue of expired chocolate cropped up, he said the sponsor had given out the expired items.
"Does this mean that the Penang government can absolve themselves from all responsibility? If all these little details had been looked into thoroughly, then none of these would have happened," he added.
Oh also questioned where the RM3 million enrolment fees collected by the organiser went to as many of the items were sponsored.
Law had said that the PBIM was well organised and those who did not get their medals were likely those who did not finish on time.
He also said the sponsor of the chocolate would put out a statement soon.