Jason Brooke, grandson of the last Rajah Muda of Sarawak flagged off the 3rd edition of the Kuching Heritage Race last Saturday January 27th 2018. Attracting over 300 eager participants,  the race's theme, “Culture meets nature,” followed a route that centered mainly round the Reservoir and Museum Parks. Open to all, the race was crafted mainly for the Kuching community as a fun way to learn (and relearn) the heritage and to discover parts of Kuching that might have otherwise been overlooked. Participants followed a map and a ‘passport’ with clues that required them to find 20 different stations and to accomplish a task or activity at each station. Over 130 volunteers helped to coordinate the stations and activities and ensure the race ran smoothly. The 64 teams (each with 2-5 members) were competing for the top prize of RM1000; measured by time and correctly answering quiz questions. The competition was keen as answering correctly any one of 12 brainy quizzes resulted in having 4 minutes of time shaved off from a team’s total time. In a very tight race, the overall winner was the Sarawak Convention Bureau team that clocked 138 minutes. They were closely followed by team “Beauties and the Beasts,” (who also won the best dressed team) and the father-daughter duo of “Team Bicycle.” Team Orion won the prize for the most ‘Media Social’ by contributing the highest number of social media posts.

More than just a fun event, the proceeds from the Kuching Heritage Race were donated to two deserving local charities. House of Joy and the Pusat Pemulihan Dalam Komuniti, Petra Jaya each received a cheque for RM20,000 to assist in their work with disabled and disadvantaged persons in their communities. In keeping with the charitable nature of the event, Team Bicycle donated their 3rd place prize money back to charity.

On hand to assist with the prize giving was the Heritage Race founder, Yeoh Siew Hoon of Penang, Joanne Tan from Sarawak Energy Berhad (the main Sponsor) and Jason Brooke; other sponsors of the race include Sarawak Tourism Board (STB), Sarawak Convention Bureau (SCB), Borneo Adventure, Secret Recipe and Plaza Merdeka & Waterfront Hotel. At the closing of this year’s race, the organizing chairman, Philip Yong thanked all the committee and the volunteers who worked to make the race a success and announced the date for next year’s race on 16th February 2019.