Study: Malaysia Apparently Has The Slowest Marathon Runners In The World

Malaysians are no strangers to runs and marathons, as such events are held almost every other month here.

Thus, it should not be an exaggeration to say that our runners are seasoned and probably, one of the fittest in the world.

Except that we're not.

A study by athletic shoe review site Run Repeat and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) found that Malaysia has the slowest marathon runners worldwide.

According to a report in The Star Online, the State of Running 2019 study, which you can check out here, came to the conclusion after analysing some 107.9 million race results from over 70,000 events, including participants from 209 countries participating in running events between 1986 and 2018.

In the study, Malaysia was placed 'the slowest’ in half marathons (HM, 21km) and (full) marathons (FM, 42.195km).

Yikes!

Malaysia is joined by Thailand (02:24:56) and Vietnam (02:30:20) in the HM category for the slowest nations, while Vietnam (05:19:34) and the Philippines (05:25:35) are amongst the slowest nations in the FM category.

The study covers 96 per cent of the race results from United States marathons, 91 per cent race results from the European Union, Canada, and Australia and only a smaller sample from Asian, Africa, and South America.

Any Malaysian runners out there want to prove that we can run fast?