Malaysia Athletics will use a single qualification race in April to decide which marathoners it puts forward for the 2027 SEA Games, with the top two men and women to be proposed for selection.
Malaysia Athletics (MA) laid out the plan at a briefing for national marathoners on 25 October. The qualification race, organised with Dirigo Events, is set for the first half of April 2027 and will most likely be held in Putrajaya. The SEA Games 2027 marathon will take place in Malaysia at the end of September 2027.
MA hopes to use the same course for both races.
“We hope that the route for this qualification event will also be the same route for the actual SEA Games 2027 marathon,” acting MA president Datuk Wan Hisham Wan Salleh said.
The first two finishers in each race will be proposed for selection, with the third-placed runner named as reserve. The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) has the final say.
The top five Malaysian men and women from this year’s Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered Marathon (KLSCM) are eligible for the qualification race.
Yeow Ni Jia leads the men after defending the Malaysian title he first won in 2025, improving his time from 2:36:13 to 2:33:52, a new KLSCM record for Malaysian men. Esther Joy Chen Hong Li heads the women after taking the title in 3:05:22 on her marathon debut.
Lai Yi Hng (2:34:16), Tan Huong Leong (2:39:17), Christopher A/L A Soosai (2:40:01) and Syahrullah bin Safri (2:40:48) complete the men’s group. Elaine Koon (3:12:43), Lai Wei Ling (3:14:37), Lim Ee Kim (3:21:23) and Tiew Jing Jing (3:24:55) join Chen.
All ten will receive support through the build-up, including access to National Sports Institute (ISN) facilities in Bukit Jalil, rehabilitation services, help registering for international races before the qualifier, with a possible allowance for those races, and training reviews by coach Azhar.
The top five Malaysians from the 2025 KLSCM are also eligible, but without the support package. That adds Muhaizar bin Mohamad to the men’s pool, and Chua Khityeng, Noor Amelia binti Musa, Lee Siok Chin and Chew Jia Qi to the women’s.
Other Malaysian marathoners can qualify on time. Men must have run faster than 2:39:04 and women faster than 2:59:25, the fifth-place marks from the 2025 SEA Games marathon, on a World Athletics-certified, AIMS-measured course between 1 April 2026 and 30 March 2027.
A SEA Games 2027 marathon organising committee will run the trial and confirm the start list. It comprises Wan Hisham, MA secretary-general Norhayati Karim, Rainer Biemans and Gloria Ng of Dirigo Events, Taylor’s University adjunct professor Dr Ong Kian-Ming as an independent consultant, and an OCM representative.
The committee expects no more than 20 athletes in each race. It will approach sponsors and partners, and hopes to offer prize money to the top finishers. It also hopes to hold a public run on the same day, after the qualification race.
MA plans to hold the qualification event every two years to coincide with the SEA Games cycle.
“MA will make this its own flagship running event for the marathon, like the USATF marathon qualification event for the Olympics which takes place once every four years,” Wan Hisham said.
