Pongok – Pongok village hosted Pongok Trail Run 2024 to commemorate the 12th anniversary of Pongok district on Sunday, 7/7/2024.
The runners were enthusiastic about the collaborative event of village and district administration and event organizer. The target was only 60 runners, but unpredictably 120 runners took part in the trail run.
As said by the district head Budiawan, this first competition was to see public enthusiasm.
Pongok was known for various attractions such as diving, fishing, and various products.
“Hopefully, it’ll be an annual event,” said Budiawan.
The village’s head Adung Taupik Hidayat said that he was proud because not many proggrame could be run in the village.
Adung expected that beautiful Pongok could be known by the public and then become one of the tourist attractions.
“I hope the next one will be better by also hosting another event such as fishing,” said Adung.
The village has prepared various homestays for accommodation. However, “I hoped the regency and provincial government can support us,” he added.
Ujang Supriyanto, the representative of the event organizer, expressed his gratitude to the village and district administration for trusting him to host the challenging event.
One of the challenges was transportation to the island. The runners should drive for more than 3 hours to get to the Sadai port and then spend for out 3 to 4 hours on a boat to Pongok Island.
“We thank the village and district administration for trusting us to organize the event. Considering that Pongok is the outermost island, the transportation needs to be improved by either provincial or central government,” said Ujang.
He said further that it was not a second-rate event because he used semi-national net time. He also ordered medals from Malaysia with can only be produced by a licensed EO to make it more prestigious.
Ujang expected that both national and international runners would promote the potency and existence of Pongok through sport tourism. (Khalimo/SAS)
