Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Exclusive: An Interview with Khairy Jamaluddin, the New Youth and Sports Minister



Finally, a sports minister who runs! We are quite happy to hear that Khairy Jamaluddin, the newly appointed Youth and Sports Minister will be taking part in the 10km road race in the coming Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2013.

Khairy, who is active in sports, is also former Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) deputy president II, FAM National Team Management Committee chairman and FAM Women Football Committee chairman.

We had a chance to talk to him after the flag off ceremony of the Standard Chartered Fun Run at Putrajaya last weekend. Check it out!



Are you a runner?
Yes. I run for recreation and fitness.

How often do you run?
I stopped because of the election but before that, I run regularly about three times a week.

How far do you normally go?
About 5km around my neighbourhood in Bukit Damansara which is a hilly area. Every time I run, I get the hills.

Who's your training partner?
Normally I run alone. Occasionally, with my brother in law.



Are you excited about running the 10km race in the coming Standard Chartered KL Marathon (SCKLM)?
Yes. I am very excited! I don’t really run that far for my normal exercise. This will be double my normal distance. But I have done it before few times before like for charity run.

What is your expectation?
Well, 10K is most popular one and most people are capable to do it, realistically, I hope to join in the fun and post a decent time.



What is your message to the readers of this blog?
I hope more Malaysians will take up running. It's a great sport and a great way to get fit. It doesn’t require huge expenditure. You need a good pair of running shoes.

I wanna make it a culture for us to run and also to increase the safety for runners. Safety to runners is very crucial because I am a runner myself. I run in Bukit Damansara. That area is okay but I'd like to run further out. Sometimes it can get very scary with all the car and motorcycles. I'd like to see the Malaysian roads are safer for runners and cyclists; probably have designated lanes for running or cycling on certain days.

Is that one of your agenda as the new Youth and Sports Minister?
I have a lot of ideas. Not just in terms of high performance, high impact sports where we can win gold medal but also community-based sports like running where a lot of people are involved. People deserve sports. One thing we can do is to look into the safety aspect of the sport.



Runwitme Says: Khairy will be lacing up his running shoes to join 17,000 runners in the 10km category in the SCKLM on 30 June 2013. For more info about SCKLM, please click http://www.kl-marathon.com/

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